


Red in Tooth

by Drogna



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-20
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 20:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1662212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drogna/pseuds/Drogna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jane gets bitten by a snake but still manages to help solve the case, Lisbon spends a lot of time worrying about Jane but still manages to help solve the case, and the rest of the team end up hunting down both the snake that bit Jane and the murderer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The damn snake bit you, didn't it?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist or any of the characters from the show.
> 
> A story in which Jane gets bitten by a snake but still manages to solve the case (with a little help from the team).
> 
> This is my first and only Mentalist Fic to date. It's also my first time of posting to AO3 so apologies if my formatting goes wrong, I'm new to this site. This was originally posted on ff.net.
> 
> This is set before Red John's demise. Please note that whilst I have done as much research as I can, my medical knowledge is mostly based on what I've read on wikipedia and from watching medical dramas. That doesn't mean it's wrong, but it doesn't make it right either. It's accurate to the best of my ability to make it so, just don't use this as a manual to treat a snake bite.

***

The scene of the murder was not a particularly unusual one at first glance. The majority of the team had arrived together after a call from the local law enforcement officers. Patrick Jane was slightly later than the others, which of course was not particularly unusual either. The aging Citroen was being slow to start in the mornings at the moment and, to be honest, so was Jane, something which had not gone unnoticed by his boss at the CBI, Teresa Lisbon. The victim, Marcus Addison, was the owner of a chain of local pet shops and had been found by his girlfriend, Lois Birchley, a few hours earlier when he failed to turn up to work. They didn’t even really need the coroner to tell them what the cause of death was, it was clearly the bullet hole in his head, although an official autopsy would still be done to make sure nothing else was missed. There was no sign of the murder weapon, so the assailant had probably taken it with them, but they would conduct a search anyway to be sure it hadn’t been dropped nearby.

The victim’s house was of a good size and little way out of Sacramento in Old Willowbrook. It had been a half hour drive from the CBI offices to get there. It seemed that the pet shops had been well run and made Addison a reasonable amount of money. It was definitely enough that he could live comfortably and have sufficient funds to keep the small zoo of animals that were also present at the property. There was a large aviary behind the property that contained all manner of colourful birds and a few cages containing rabbits and other small mammals. The local cops had already called animal control to come and deal with them.

Inside the house, the décor was minimalist but tasteful. However, there were a few unusual details. The main one, which Jane was now perusing, was that Addison had been killed in the room where he kept his collection of pet reptiles. A huge number of glass vivariums were arranged on what appeared to be custom made pedestals around the large room. Lisbon watched him with interest as he inspected the various occupants of the tanks. Jane always seemed drawn to animals; he was fascinated by them, and she often wondered if perhaps he saw them as true innocents in a human world where no one was really innocent.

She turned back to Rigsby and the girlfriend. “Did he have any enemies? Or was there anyone he’d argued with recently?”

Lois Birchley shook her head vehemently, her eyes were red with tears, and she kept glancing in the direction of the covered body. “He worked every hour he could, running the shops, and he didn’t have much time for anything else. He just didn’t know that many people. The two of us met when he employed me to manage the first Sacramento branch that he opened. He loved animals, especially the reptiles.” She indicated the tanks around the room. “He’s got one of the best collections of venomous snakes in the US outside of the major zoos.”

Jane’s ears pricked up. “Venomous?” He took an almost imperceptible half step away from the tank he was looking at. The brightly striped snake within flicked its tongue at him.

“Don’t worry, he was very careful and the tanks are all secure. That one’s just a milk snake anyway. They’re not all venomous. It’s that one over there that’s the real killer. It’s the prize of his collection, a Black Mamba.” She indicated a dark black snake in one of the tanks. “He’d just had a new one delivered.” A packing crate, suitable for a reptile sat in the corner of the room, and her eyes glanced towards it briefly.

Lisbon watched Jane move along the tanks, pointing to each one with his finger. “I’d guess you know what all of these snakes are, and which is the new one?”

Lois nodded. “He didn’t tell me what species it was, but it’ll be in the new tank.” She turned towards the end of the line of tanks, and stopped. As did Jane.

“Huh. The empty tank with the drops of blood on it. He must have been putting it away as he was shot,” said Jane turning towards Lisbon, with a suddenly genuinely worried look on his face. “Lisbon…”

Lisbon looked around the room bustling with agents, forensics techs and coroner’s assistants, a dawning realisation on her face. She took a deep breath and shouted out her next order. “I want this room clear now. We have a possibly dangerous snake loose in this room.”

People hesitated for a moment, because they probably weren’t used to being ordered to leave a room due to there being a snake on the loose.

“Now! Out! And someone call animal control again.” She started moving towards the door, ushering others in front of her to make sure all the people got out. Cho had already flipped his phone out and was dialling animal control as he walked out of the room. Jane was furthest across the other side of the room. He was taking his time, poking at the box and packing material that the snake had come in.

“Come on, Jane, it’s not safe in here with an escaped snake.”

“It’s a big room, Lisbon. It’s interesting that there aren’t any shipping papers in this, don’t you think? I’d have expected there…” Suddenly Jane let out a yelp and turned quickly to look down. His face when he turned back to Lisbon was pale. “I think I just found our missing snake.”

Lisbon’s mouth dropped open. She just had time to think that of course it would have to be Jane who got bit, before she rushed across the room and grabbed one of his arms. She hauled him out of the room with him limping as quickly as he could.

“You idiot,” seethed Lisbon. “I give an order and you decide to look for a packing slip. The damn snake bit you, didn’t it?” They stepped out of the house and onto the porch. She sat Jane down on the front step.

“I didn’t think the snake would understand irony.” Jane was pale as he rolled up his pants leg to reveal two red puncture marks on his left calf. They were already bleeding a little.

“What is ironic about this?” She pulled out her phone and began dialling the paramedics.

“You shouted something like “get out there’s a dangerous snake that may bite you” and that very second the snake bit me.”

Rigsby, Van Pelt, and Cho had seen Lisbon and Jane emerge from the house and came over to see what was going on.

“That’s not ironic, it’s just stupid.” The call connected. “This is Agent Lisbon, I need an ambulance to 1135 Montgomery Drive, Old Willowbrook. I have an agent with a possible venomous snake bite.” She put the phone to her shoulder. “Ms Birchley, do you know what kind of snake it is?”

Lois shook her head. “No, Marcus didn’t tell me what he was buying. It was supposed to be a surprise.” She was practically in tears again, simply at the mention of his snake collection.

“No, we don’t know the type of snake. Uh huh, okay. Thank you.” She closed the phone.

Jane looked up at Lisbon, doing his best to look completely unconcerned. He was very good at faking it, but this time the paleness of his face gave away the fact that something wasn’t right. The bite was clearly painful.

“You’re worrying over this too much. I used to know people that worked with snakes, back in my youth. The majority of snake bites are dry bites, that means no venom, and even then most snakes don’t put enough venom into a bite to kill a man. In fact it actually takes a snake a lot of effort to produce venom, so they don’t use it unless they really have to. It’s probably just a puncture wound; at worst I’ll feel a bit nauseous… which will be a good reminder to follow your orders in the future.” He gave her an apologetic smile which she knew was supposed to put her at ease, but it would need more than that this time. She was actually wondering how much of this to believe. “It’s why rattlesnakes rattle after all. Snakes prefer to give warnings rather than waste precious venom.”

She crouched down beside Jane, grabbed his wrist and started to take his pulse. “Shut up, Jane. They said you need to relax and stay as calm as possible.” Which meant that she would also have to be as calm as possible, and that was going to be hard. She really wanted to slap him for being so careless.

“You were bitten by the snake?” asked Cho, looking down at Jane. Cho’s face was as unemotional as always, but the occasional glance at Lisbon meant she knew that he didn’t like this development at their crime scene.

“Yes, apparently I got too close to its hiding place,” said Jane, with a shrug. “Most snakes are timid creatures and would rather run away than bite. I’d suggest we’re looking for one of the more vicious species.”

Cho frowned. “It was probably already scared by all the people in the room.”

Jane gave an extremely reluctant shrug. “Maybe.” He hated admitting that maybe he’d been wrong, and if Lisbon was pushed then she’d have to admit that he rarely was, despite his proclivity for causing trouble.

“Anything we can do, boss?” asked Rigsby, regarding the scene with concern.

“Go down the drive and make sure that the ambulance knows where to come.”

“Yes, boss.” Rigsby seemed to be grateful to have something to do and left swiftly.

“Van Pelt, see if you can find a bandage to wrap around the wound.”

“Yes, Boss,” said Van Pelt and she too ran off to her assigned task.

Jane frowned. “I don’t think this was a dry bite. My leg is feeling a bit strange. Kind of tingly, and heavy.”

Lisbon did everything she could to disguise her reaction to this news, but she was aware that her eyes were probably giving her away to the man who could read body language as easily as she would read a book. “Jane, I need you to slow your heartbeat as much as possible. I know you can do it. You've got all those exercises that you do.”

Jane gave a half-hearted nod. “I’m doing my best.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He closed his eyes and shuffled a little on the step to get more comfortable. His breathing slowed and became more measured. Lisbon could feel that Jane’s pulse was slowing from what she would consider to be normal, and she hoped that this was a sign that his breathing exercises were working. She marvelled slightly that he could do this at the moment at all.

Van Pelt returned with the First Aid kit and began to bandage the wound as carefully as she could. The skin around the puncture marks was already turning a dark red and looking somewhat angry. Even though Grace was being careful, it was clearly causing Jane a good deal of pain.

“Lisbon. It’s getting a little difficult to catch my breath.” He pulled at his collar, even though it didn’t seem to be tight. His pulse was rising again.

“Hang in there, Jane. The paramedics will be here any moment.”

She noticed now that his lungs were working harder than she’d expect for a man sat resting on the step. He leaned slightly to one side and Cho rapidly positioned himself at his side to stop him from falling over. Jane barely noticed. His eyes were screwed shut, but when they opened she could see genuine fear behind them. She looked around, desperately hoping that the ambulance would arrive soon, but it was another few minutes of watching Jane’s breathing become increasingly laboured before she heard sirens wailing and flashing lights turned onto the drive. Rigsby was directing the ambulance towards the porch, and already running after it.

“Lisbon…” Jane had to take a deep breath to even speak now. “I don’t… like hospitals.” His eyes were showing that he was on the verge of panic now.

“I know, I’ll come with you. Cho can finish things up here.” She glanced over to the detective who sat next to Jane. Cho just gave a silent nod, which was more than enough for her to know that he’d understood. Lisbon had complete faith in him to make sure the crime scene and errant snake were dealt with properly.

The paramedics arrived bearing a gurney and a large bag of medical apparatus. Jane was having a lot of difficulty remaining upright by this point, so they moved him to the gurney. Cho gave them a hand with the lift, more to make it smooth ride for Jane than because the consultant was particularly heavy.

Lisbon reeled off everything that she knew about the circumstances of Jane’s injury. “He was bitten about fifteen minutes ago; we haven’t identified the snake species, and he initially didn’t have any problems, but then started complaining of tingling and pain in his leg. He’s also having trouble catching his breath.”

It took the paramedics only a few moments to pull off Jane’s jacket, roll up a sleeve, plug an IV into his arm and put an oxygen mask over his face. Lisbon took Jane’s jacket, aware that he was particular about his suits, even though the pants now had two snake fang marks in them. He was sweating profusely, just from the effort of being moved to the gurney, and his eyes were wandering, unfocused. Lisbon realised that he must have been at least somewhat out of it to have shown his weaker side and mentioned his dislike of hospitals.

And yet he was still talking. She found it hard to believe. He was suffering from a serious snake bite and he was still trying to tell her things.

“Lisbon… the crate… the snake… came in… You… should check… that out.” It was muffled by the oxygen mask, which he was trying to push away as he spoke, but the paramedics kept repositioning it.

“Jane, stop talking and let the paramedics do their job.” She helped the paramedics move him into the back of the ambulance, giving Rigsby and Van Pelt a quick nod as she did so before turning back to Jane. “Once they’ve caught the snake, I’ll check out the crate.” She couldn’t believe that she was actually telling him this given that his body was most likely fighting against deadly snake venom at this point.

She climbed into the back of the ambulance as Jane began to seriously fight off the paramedics. At first he was just pushing them out of the way, but it became more frenetic when the door of the ambulance shut behind them. He was actively stopping them from helping him and on the verge of violence, before Lisbon could stop him. The ambulance began moving, the siren working up to its full blown blare of sound.

One of the EMTs looked over at Lisbon. “Confusion can be pretty common when we’re dealing with a snake bite, but I don’t want to give him anything to keep him calm. We don’t know how it might react with the venom. He needs to give the oxygen and IV a chance to help.”

Lisbon took up a position beside Jane. “Jane, stop it. Let them help you. Jane!” She grabbed one of his arms and was surprised by his strength. She’d never had to hold him down before now and hoped she never had to again. She could see that his mind wasn’t exactly with her at the moment, so she concentrated on his eyes. “Jane, look at me. It’s Lisbon. You’re going to be okay, but you were bitten by a snake. It’s the venom in your bloodstream that’s making you feel this way.”

He looked directly at her with a look of total panic, but it stilled a little as he met her eyes. “Can’t… can’t breathe… help me.”

She wasn’t sure at all how to answer this plea for help. She could understand that he felt vulnerable threatened, and she knew for certain that Jane was, at the centre of his being, a coward. Sometimes his good side won out and he’d do the right thing, but his self-preservation instincts were strong. She didn’t really blame him, he wasn’t a trained law enforcement officer, but she wondered sometimes if he was just keeping himself safe so that he could attack his true target – Red John.

“Jane, it’s okay. Patrick…” she hesitated to use his first name. It had only ever been used between them at important moments, moments when trust needed to be invoked. “Patrick, you need to relax, calm down and let the medics help you. The mask is giving you oxygen and you need it.”

He too seemed to realise what the use of his first name signalled. His eyes were fixed on her face and then they fell closed, but he did stop fighting the paramedics and they were finally able to place the electrodes on his chest for their monitors. His entire body seemed to visibly let go of the tension in it and attempt to calm itself, despite the difficulty that he was obviously having with his breathing. He remained that way for the twenty minute journey to the nearest hospital with a suitable trauma unit to deal with a snake bite victim. To Lisbon the journey seemed too long and the wait was interminable, but the paramedics seemed to think he was doing as well as could be expected at this point.

They stopped and the doors opened, Jane’s eyes peeled open just enough to register his move between the ambulance and the actual hospital. His hand clenched on the blanket, and she remembered again how much he disliked hospitals. For him they represented rubber rooms and locked doors, even now after all this time had passed. However, he didn’t resume his attempts to remove his oxygen mask or take out his IV, he lay back and allowed himself to be transferred to the ER.

He was wheeled into an ER side room, where he was transferred to a bed and the paramedics took their leave after giving the details of his condition to the young, dark haired, female doctor in scrubs and a white coat, who was waiting for them. Lisbon thanked them as they left and then took her position at the side of her consultant again. The nurses had already begun to cut Jane’s pants off and were moving on to his shirt and vest. She didn’t think he’d be happy when she informed him what had happened to his clothes. She made a mental note to get Van Pelt to bring in some more for him before he was discharged.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but you can’t stay,” said the doctor, as she completed an initial check of Jane’s vitals. “You can wait outside.” She wasn’t really paying much attention to Lisbon, because she was now giving the bite and surrounding area a thorough examination. It was dark red, almost black in places around the bite and oozing blood copiously despite the earlier bandages, which she had just removed and discarded. “Agent…?”

“Agent Lisbon.” Her eyes widened at the mere suggestion that she could leave. “I’m not leaving. I’ll stand back, but he needs a friend here. He has a few issues with hospitals and the snake bite is affecting his lucidity. He tried to fight off the paramedics and I don’t want him to try the same thing in here. If he does, then I can talk him down.”

The doctor gave a quick set of instructions to one of the nurses to bandage the rather gruesome looking wound again. She appeared to have more important things to do than argue with her patient’s friend, and Lisbon wasn’t surprised when she waved her off. “Fine, but if you faint we’ll just step over you.”

More circular sticky electrodes were placed on Jane’s chest to monitor his heart and connected by wires to a screen. The doctor checked the notes made by the paramedics again, and seeing that everyone else was occupied, she took out a blood testing kit and began to draw blood from a cannula in Jane’s arm herself. She collected several vials, labelling each one carefully. She turned to her patient. “Mr Jane? Can you hear me?”

Jane nodded, but he was clearly not one hundred per cent, despite the extra oxygen the mask was providing. His eyes fell closed for a moment. “I feel… strange.”

The doctor nodded. “I’m Doctor Talavera and the good news is I’ve treated a lot of snake bites. The fact that you’re conscious, and answering my questions is a good thing. We’re going to start you on a polyvalent antivenin, but really we need to know what kind of snake you were bitten by so that we can give you the monovalent antivenin that is specific to the snake’s venom. Can you remember anything about what the snake looked like?”

Normally Jane wouldn’t have had any problem remembering this and could probably have regurgitated half an encyclopaedia on snake habits too, but he wasn’t in any state to perform his usual amazing memory feats. Lisbon could see him trying desperately to remember something, whilst also being slightly bewildered as to why his usually sharp recollection wasn’t working today. His brow furrowed in concentration. “It… was brown… Patterned I think.”

The doctor actually nodded enthusiastically at this. “Okay, that’s good. We’re not dealing with a coral snake, or any of the other more colourful species. A few more to tick off the list.” She made a note. “The paramedics said that you’ve got animal control on the scene. As soon as they catch it, we need to know what it was.” She looked towards Lisbon, who just nodded. She was already thinking the same thing. The doctor continued. “And I should warn you that the majority of patients have some kind of allergic reaction to the antivenin, but its severity varies from patient to patient. We’re going to be giving you painkillers to make you more comfortable, antibiotics in case of infection and antihistamines to keep any allergic reaction under control. We’ll be monitoring you closely.”

Jane just looked up at Lisbon, his eyes clearly asking her to just take care of this. His breathing seemed a little better on the oxygen, but it still wasn’t right.

Lisbon looked over at the doctor. “We’re in your hands, Doctor.”

Talavera gave her a curt nod of acknowledgement. “Try not to worry, all the indications so far are that we should be able to manage this and you’ll make a complete recovery, Mr Jane.” Lisbon didn’t feel particularly convinced.

Jane looked up at Talavera and then to Lisbon. “Our doctor… is ex-military, Lisbon. Good hands.”

Lisbon took a moment to enjoy the look of bemused surprise on Talavera’s face, before waiting for the customary question.

“I was Army Medical Corps. How did you know?”

Jane gave a small smile and took a deep breath. His voice was weak, tired sounding and still muffled by the oxygen mask. “Hair, nails, way you stand, hold yourself.” He closed his eyes. “Very military. You’re not long back.”

“He’s good at reading people,” said Lisbon by way of explanation. “He’s a consultant with the CBI and helps us with our investigations.”

“That’s pretty clever,” she looked at his monitors and made another note on Jane’s chart.

“Yeah, and he’s not even on his best form today.” If it was possible, Jane’s skin was actually even paler now. A nurse was already hanging new bags of fluid on the IV stand and she hoped some of them would start working soon.

“Okay, I need to get these blood tests to the lab. I’ll be back once we have the results. In the meantime, Mr Jane should try to get some rest. You can stay if you like, Agent Lisbon, as long as you don’t get in our way.”

Lisbon nodded. “Understood.” At least this doctor did seem to know what she was doing, and Lisbon was warming to her.

“And get me the species of that snake.” Talavera headed out of the door.

Lisbon watched the nurse take blood and check IV lines for a moment, before she looked around for a seat. The only chair in the room was a moulded plastic seat with metal legs that looked decidedly uncomfortable, but would have to do. Jane’s eyes were shut and although he was still not breathing well, he was calm and seemed to be sleeping. She flipped open her phone and dialled Cho.

***

 


	2. How far can a snake get?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Rigsby and Cho question a suspect and Jane and Lisbon have a conversation.

****

Cho was standing in the doorway of their murder victim’s house watching two grown men stalk a missing snake when his phone rang. Outside, Van Pelt and Rigsby were still talking to the victim’s girlfriend, but as they saw Cho answer the phone, Van Pelt wound up the conversation.

“Hi Boss,” said Cho. “How’s Jane?”

“He’s stable, and sleeping,” said Lisbon. “But we need to know what kind of snake it was, so that we can get him the right treatment. Have you caught it yet?”

“No. Animal control are on it now, but so far no luck.”

Cho heard the disappointed sigh from his boss, he wasn’t surprised when she followed it up with instructions for the case they were working on.

“Do me a favour and get them to grab the crate that the snake came in and any paperwork that went with it. There has to be something else going on here. Jane seemed to think that packing crate was important. It might even give us the species of the snake. Find out where the snake came from and see who else the victim had contact with.”

“We’re on it, Boss. Tell Jane to get well soon.”

“Will do,” and Lisbon rang off.

“How is he?” asked Van Pelt.

“Lisbon says he’s doing okay but we need to find out what kind of snake it was that bit him,” replied Cho. He turned back towards the animal control guys. “Hey, could you bring me the crate that the snake came in.”

One of the men from animal control checked the box carefully and brought it over to Cho. It was a wooden crate with a plastic liner. There was an address printed on a label on the top of the crate that was for one of the pet stores that the victim owned. Other than the remains of some bedding for the snake, there was nothing else in the crate.

Cho frowned. “There should be a packing slip in here. Van Pelt, stay here and let Lisbon know as soon as they get the snake. Me and Rigsby will go to the pet store and see if we can find any paperwork there.”

“Okay, shouldn’t take us long to get there. We need to start talking to the pet store employees anyway,” said Rigsby, taking out his keys and heading for their SUV.

Van Pelt nodded, and exchanged positions with Cho. “I’ll let you know once the crime scene is clear.”

Cho followed Rigsby, wondering how much more complicated this case could become. “I really hate snakes.”

The store was the largest in the chain, called “Paws, Claws and Scales”, and was currently staffed by Addison’s shop manager, Jonathan Barnes, and two younger staff members Kumiko Hatayama and Dan Gorski. Cho and Rigsby flashed their badges and were allowed into the back office. The office was actually a large room but it was incredibly cramped. It was half full of boxes of pet food, bales of animal bedding, animals that weren’t ready to be moved into the main shop and filing cabinets. The rest of the office was taken up with a large desk, upon which sat a rather dated computer, a table with a coffee machine and a battered sofa that Jane probably would have wanted to try out immediately.

Rigsby began to search the desk for anything which might relate to the snake, it was piled with papers and there didn’t seem to be much order to the clutter. 

Cho turned back to Barnes. “Your boss had a snake delivered here for his personal collection yesterday. Do you know anything about that?”

Barnes frowned. “We had a batch of new snakes delivered to the store yesterday, but I didn’t think Marcus had any for his personal collection in with them. He only goes for the interesting ones, and usually venomous species. We don’t sell the venomous snakes in the store, except by special request, and there’s a hell of a lot of paperwork involved. We’re a licensed snake importer, but even so, you’re talking applying for permits and government forms as long as your arm.”

Kumiko came into the room and headed for the coffee pot, mug in hand. Everyone turned to look at her. She was a small Asian woman, probably about nineteen or twenty, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with the store logo on it. She looked around as if she hadn’t realised that she might be walking into the middle of something, “what?”

Barnes frowned. “This is a private conversation, Kumiko.”

Kumiko put the cup down beside the coffee machine. “Marcus is dead. Don’t you think you should be telling the employees what’s going on? Are we closing up shop or what?”

Barnes sighed and folded his arms across his chest. “As soon as I know what’s happening, I’ll get everyone together and let them know. They just found him this morning, and we don’t even know when the funeral is yet.”

Kumiko rolled her eyes, shook her head and left the room.

“Difficult employee?” asked Rigsby.

“She liked Marcus, but not me. The two of them had a love of reptiles, and he was training her up on their care. Marcus mentioned once that she had a troubled childhood, I’ve never asked for the details. She’s always been reliable and good with the customers and animals, so I can’t complain too much.”

Cho glanced in Kumiko’s direction, but turned back to Barnes. “Where’s the paperwork for the snake shipment?”

“Erm, it’ll be in the filing cabinet,” said Barnes. “I’ll get it for you.” Barnes moved over to the filing cabinet and shuffled through the top draw of papers. “Hmm. Maybe it was misfiled. It’s not where it’s supposed to be. We enter everything on the computer too.”

Barnes moved over to the computer and logged on. “That’s strange. It doesn’t look like we logged in the snakes that were delivered yesterday.”

“Who’s job would it have been to do that?” asked Cho.

Barnes frowned again. “Kumiko, usually.” He shrugged. “She’s normally pretty good with the paperwork. I’ve never had to ask her twice to do it.”

“I’ll get her,” said Rigsby. The tall agent stepped out into the main store, and was just in time to see Kumiko run out of the door. With an annoyed shout back to Cho, he gave chase. He ran headlong out of the store and onto the street, just in time to see Kumiko at the wheel of a beaten up blue sedan car driving away. He kicked at the dirt and pulled out his notebook to write down the licence plate number before he could forget it. Cho joined him, a few seconds behind him in his dash to the door, as Rigsby was calling in the number plate and description of Kumiko to the local police.

“Barnes should have an address for her, but I doubt she’d be stupid enough to go back there now. I’m not looking forward to telling Lisbon about this,” said Rigsby as he put his phone away.

“Me either. We’re going to need to track her down fast.”

Rigsby nodded. “Do you think she shot Addison? Or did she just run because there was something illegal about those snakes?”

“Who knows?” said Cho. “Until we’ve got somewhere to start looking for her, she’s in the wind.”

***

Jane felt weird. Every time he opened his eyes it felt like he was looking down a long tunnel, after a while the effect became unsettling and made him feel dizzy. However that paled into insignificance compared to the feeling that a pile of bricks seemed to be weighing down his chest and legs. It had eased slightly once whatever was in his IV had started to work, but that had just made him realise that he was also now feeling somewhat nauseous and his leg ached fiercely even with the large amount of pain medication that was probably being pumped into him.

He was lying between crisp white sheets that had a hospital issue pale blue blanket thrown over the top of them, and he was pleasantly warm. The head of the bed was slightly elevated, and he was propped up on a couple of pillows. At some point in the last hour or so, a couple of nurses had wrestled a gown onto his semi-naked body with the practiced ease of professionals who did it several times a day, every day. For some reason the procedure had both amused and fascinated him, which he knew meant that his brain was misfiring in some interesting ways. He supposed that was what being bitten by a snake would do to one.

The soft beeping of the machines that monitored his vitals was sounding more rhythmic than it had any right to be, and seemed to be falling into time with the whooshing sound from the oxygen supply in a kind of musical duet. He noted it as another symptom of the snake bite playing with his mind, or perhaps the painkillers; at this point it was hard to know which.

He absent-mindedly scratched at an itch on his arm and prised open his eyes again. He carefully turned his head to see Lisbon, tapping at her phone.

“You… don’t have to stay,” he croaked, his voice sounding strange and weak even to his own ears. He attempted a smile, hoping to show her it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but the oxygen mask rather spoilt that.

She seemed a little surprised to see him awake again, as she rested her phone on her lap. “Cho is handling things and they don’t need me there right now. I’ll stay a bit longer.”

Jane was quite capable of knowing when he was being placated with a half-truth, but didn’t call Lisbon on it. If she wanted to say “I’ll stay a bit longer” but mean “I’m not leaving” then he wasn’t going to complain. He actually liked having her here and although he hated to admit it, he wasn’t quite so freaked out about the hospital stay as he had been on previous occasions. Maybe it was because she was here, waiting with him to see how things unfolded, that his instinct to flee as soon as possible was somewhat lessened. Not that he could have left even if he wanted to, right now keeping his eyes open was enough of a struggle. Even with Lisbon to keep him company, he still felt vulnerable, just lying here. He preferred to be the one in control of any situation and being held captive in this bed by his own malfunctioning body, while others held his fate in their hands was not the way he usually did things.

He kept his eyes on Lisbon for the moment, putting all his strength into holding something close to a normal conversation.

“Did they… find the snake?”

“Not yet, but how far can a snake get? They’ll probably find it dead up a corner after biting you.” Lisbon’s eyes had a very tiny bit of amusement in them, which actually made Jane quite pleased, despite the situation. He’d rather the two of them resumed their usual banter than sit here in gloomy silence.

“Lisbon, insulting the sick… I’m surprised at you.” He gave her his best aggrieved look, which he knew she would see through. He scratched at another itch on his other arm, as he waited for her reply.

“Cho said to “get well soon”,” said Lisbon.

Jane raised his eyebrows. “Must be bad then. I wonder if they’ve… discovered that the snake was… imported illegally yet.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Lisbon.

“Addison’s house was neat… he wouldn’t throw out paperwork accidentally. It wasn’t there… because he didn’t have it,” replied Jane, scratching at his collarbone. “Didn’t expect… to have cops tramping through his house.”

“Jane, why are you scratching?” asked Lisbon.

He hadn’t even realised that he still was. He looked down at his arm to see that it was covered in red scratches made by his nails and underneath that was a growing, slightly raised, red rash. He realised that it wasn’t just his arm that was itching either, now that he was concentrating on it, he was beginning to realise that his whole body was itching. He frowned and looked back at Lisbon, who had risen from her chair and come to the side of the bed.

“I think… this is the allergic reaction… kicking in,” he said, tiredly. He watched a rather worried Lisbon hit the call button, as he tried to ignore the itching without much success.

He sighed and let his eyes fall shut again for a moment. He’d always quite liked snakes, knowing that they weren’t the cold creatures that they were often portrayed as. All the snakes he’d even handled had been harmless and warm to the touch, with a feel to their skin like fine, soft leather. He desperately needed to remember what this snake had looked like, but there was a dense fog in his mind and it was making it hard to even find his way around the normally familiar structure of his memory. Even when he got to the right room, the door was resolutely shut to him and the memory would fade, leaving him back at square one. The most he’d been able to retrieve was that the snake had been brown and that wasn’t enough. He needed to be able to describe the detailed pattern, and before he became too ill to do it.

His thoughts were disturbed by the return of Doctor Talavera, summoned by the call button. 

Doctor Talavera was an interesting conundrum he decided, unable to stop himself from considering his doctor. She’d confirmed that he’d been right about her military background, which was interesting in itself. It took a special kind of person to sign up for an organisation whose main purpose was to kill, but be there to save lives. Sort of like someone who was lactose intolerant working in an ice-cream parlour. He expected that there probably were lactose intolerant people working in ice-cream parlours, but surely they missed out on most of the fun employee benefits. Or maybe it was more like a former conman working for the CBI, trying to make something bad into something good. He dismissed that errant and rather uncharacteristic thought quickly. 

But her military background wasn’t the only thing that made her interesting, after all there were a lot of doctors in the military. No, it was the fact that she cared more than she should. She was definitely taking a special interest in his case, and he wondered why. Normally a nurse would have answered the call button, and a doctor would have been called if needed. However, putting all that to one side, she was extremely competent, for which Jane was exceedingly glad, and he’d come across a few quacks in his time.

“Hi there, Mr Jane. What’s the problem?” asked Talavera.

Jane prised open his eyes again and raised an arm, or at least tried to. His muscles were aching and weakness was spreading across his entire body. “This.”

Talavera stepped up to the bed and began to examine the rash that was now obvious on both arms and the top of his chest. 

“You’re having an allergic reaction to the antivenin, as we expected, but the antihistamines aren’t keeping it at bay. We’ll have to move on to corticosteroids.” She looked up at Jane, clearly noting how much moving his arm had hurt. “Aching joints are another symptom. How’s the pain? On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst pain you could imagine.”

Jane gave a shrug. Things hurt but he could bear it, and he didn’t need to be any more mentally impaired than he already was. More painkillers would just make him loopier. “Four.”

She frowned just a touch as she replied, as if she didn’t really believe him but wasn’t sure why he’d lie. A slight shrug suggested she would listen to her patient. “Okay, you should be fine with what you’re on, but if it gets worse then shout. Or press the call button.”

Jane nodded. “Oh, I’ll definitely do that.”

A nurse, one of the ones who’d dressed him in the gown earlier, came in with a slim brown file. She had light brown hair and darker brown eyes. Jane had already pegged her as a mother of several children, probably at least one of them was a girl because of the remains of badly applied bright pink nail varnish on her fingers. She wouldn’t have done that herself, so it was likely that it was one of her kids. Most boys didn’t think it was fun to paint their mother’s nails in his experience. She didn’t have a lot of money to spare from the evidence of careful repair work on her clothes, but her neat mode of dress indicated that she was smart enough to balance the family budget and they weren’t on the breadline. She wore a wedding ring on a chain around her neck, next to a small cross on the same chain, so he was fairly certain that she was a widowed single parent. She seemed nice and he felt sorry for her, but he doubted that she’d want to know that. Besides, he’d caught a whiff of cologne on her uniform earlier and he’d bet money that she had a new man in her life.

“Doctor, I have Mr Jane’s test results,” said the nurse.

Talavera took the file and flipped it open, scanning down the lines of data. She wasn’t holding it at the right angle for Jane to be able to see what was written inside, although he was trying despite the oxygen mask getting in his way. The tunnel vision effect wasn’t helping either. He gave up, closed his eyes for a moment and drifted for a few minutes, somewhat involuntarily.

“Hmmm,” said Talavera and Jane knew immediately that it wasn’t a good “hmmm”, which brought him back to the room rather abruptly.

He pulled the oxygen mask down and opened his eyes again. He’d read enough about snake bites in his time to have a reasonable idea of what she might have seen in his blood test results. “You’re going to tell me… my kidneys are failing.”

She frowned again. “I thought I was the one with the medical degree, but actually you’re only half right. You have elevated CK enzyme levels in your blood, and that’s a precursor to kidney failure. It indicates that your muscles have been damaged by the venom. The antivenin should be slowing the progress of the damage, but we really still need the right antivenin. The chances are that it was an exotic variety and we don’t carry it here, which means calling Venom One in Miami to get it flown in.” She looked at Lisbon again. “I need the name of that snake and soon.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Lisbon. She flicked her phone open again.

“Don’t bother…Lisbon,” said Jane. “They’ll call… the moment they have it. You’re just… going to distract them.”

Jane was feeling weird again, or more weird than before anyway. The room had taken on just a slight tilt and spin to it. It was making him feel decidedly sick. He retreated back into the darkness behind closed eyelids. He vaguely heard his heart monitor begin to beep more erratically, but he was already slipping into confusion and the lower levels of consciousness by that point. He still wasn’t completely out of it because he could hear Lisbon calling his name. He really wanted to reply but the growing weight on his chest was just too much, and all he could do was let things happen around him whilst he drifted in a bizarre twilight reality, where everything that was happening, was happening to someone else. Finally, even that sensation ceased and he passed into a deeper state of complete unconsciousness.


	3. Could have been a lot worse

Grace Van Pelt was marshalling some pretty annoyed and bored people, who had turned up to a crime scene and ended up at a snake hunt. Animal control had called in reinforcements since a man’s life was at stake and the snake was proving to be so elusive, which meant that there were now five people prowling the room looking for the snake. The forensics team were complaining about losing evidence with every passing moment, and the coroner was debating whether it was worth heading back to the office to return later.

Finally, one of the men shouted out “I’ve got it.” That wasn’t the end of it though, as all he’d done was found its location in the room. It took them another ten minutes to actually capture the angry snake and secure it in a suitable tank. At which point everyone was allowed back into the room so that they could all do their jobs.

Van Pelt headed straight for the animal control team leader. “Do you know what species it is?”

“Tom’s the expert,” said the man. “What do you think?”

The bearded man referred to as “Tom” examined the snake in the tank for a long moment; it was brown with a sort of diamond shaped pattern on its back. “I’d say it’s a Long-nose Viper. That means it could have been a lot worse for your guy in the hospital, but it’ll depend on how bad the bite was. I wish I had a second opinion from the guy on the floor though. He knew everything there was to know about snakes.”

Van Pelt looked a little surprised, as she pulled out her phone. “You knew him?”

Tom nodded. “Anyone who keeps snakes in this area knew Marcus.”

“Just give me a moment and I’d like to hear more. I need to let the hospital know what the snake is.” Van Pelt pressed the speed dial for her boss. The phone rang several times before it was answered.

Lisbon’s voice sounded strained as she spoke. “Van Pelt, please tell me that you know what kind of snake this was.”

“Yes, Boss. It was a Long-nosed Viper,” said Van Pelt, to an audible sigh of relief at the other end of the phone. Tom scribbled a note on a piece of paper and handed it to Van Pelt. She glanced at the snake expert and then tried to pronounce what he’d written. “Uh, vipera ammodytes is the Latin name apparently.” She then had to spell it out so that Lisbon could write it down.

“Thanks, Van Pelt. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

She hung up, probably off to contact whoever it was that could get Jane the right antivenin. She turned back to Tom, but her phone rang again. It was Rigsby.

“Grace, we’re back at the office. We couldn’t find the paperwork at the pet store, but we did find a suspect, Kumiko Hatayama. She was responsible for processing the paperwork but ran before we could question her. We think the snake was imported illegally. The pet store manager, Barnes, gave us her payroll address, but she’s not there. We’re going to see what we can track down on her,” said Rigsby.

“I’ll be on my way back soon too. They caught the snake. I’ve just given Lisbon the details. It turns out one of the animal control guys knew Addison, so I’m going to talk to him before I head back,” Van Pelt glanced towards Tom.

“Okay, ask him what he knows about the illegal import business around here, but don’t take too long, we could use you on the computers. Did Lisbon say anything about how Jane’s doing?”

“Not really, she just said she’d call back in a few minutes. I guess she needs to get the information about the snake to the right people.”

“Yeah, I expect so. Keep us in the loop, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll see you later,” said Van Pelt. With the conversation over, she put her phone away and turned back to Tom. “What can you tell me about the victim?”

Tom gave a half shrug. “He was a well-respected snake expert. I’ve been around here a couple of times to see his snakes. He had one of the best collections outside a zoo. Some of them came from zoos that were being shut down. I bought a snake from his store last year, it was a fine specimen and we did all the paperwork together. He cared for all of his animals really well.”

Van Pelt nodded. “Did you ever have reason to think that he was importing snakes illegally?”

“Marcus?” Tom shook his head, but paused a moment. “Actually, there is one in his collection. A Gabon Viper.” He pointed to the tank that contained it. “It turned up one day and he said he’d got it from a private collection, because the owner had died. I asked him who it was and he said he couldn’t remember the name, which seemed kind of strange, but I didn’t really think much of it at the time. It’s illegal to import Gabon Vipers, they’re endangered, but he could have had one that someone else had already imported illegally I guess. There are procedures that he’d have to go through to get the paperwork sorted, but he’d done it for some of the ones that came from zoos. He’d have it filed somewhere here or maybe at the store.”

“My colleagues and I couldn’t find the paperwork for this snake, here or at the store.” Van Pelt had done a thorough search of the victim’s home office while the animal control guys were cornering the snake.

“That’s strange. If he’d imported a Long-nosed Viper he would have needed permits.”

“Where did he import his snakes from?” asked Van Pelt.

“He had a guy that he dealt with, his name’s Juan Romanos. He’s a snake importer, based in San Francisco I think but he has an office in Sacramento. He’s got a lot of international contacts.”

Van Pelt made a note of the name. “Do you know Kumiko Hatayama?”

Tom nodded, looking a little surprised to be asked about the shop assistant. “Sure, she works at one of Marcus’ stores in town. She’s pretty knowledgeable about the reptiles and I think Marcus has been training her in how to keep and handle the venomous snakes.”

“Can you think of any reason why she’d run from my colleagues?” asked Van Pelt.

“Er, I know she used to run with a tough crowd, but Marcus reckoned she was all straightened out. Do you think she was mixed up in something illegal? Importing snakes illegally? I know it goes on, but I’d never have thought Marcus would get into that sort of thing. The stores were doing well and he knew that illegally imported snakes are treated pretty badly. A lot of them turn up dead on arrival. He looked after his snakes, I mean look at this place. There are snakes in zoos that don’t have it this good.”

Van Pelt had to agree. Each snake had its own large tank with pieces of branch or whatever habitat was appropriate for the individual species. She took out a card and handed it to Tom. “If you think of anything else that might be relevant, please give me a call.”

Tom fished in his pocket and handed Van Pelt one of his own cards. “Okay. If you have any questions about the snake, then you can get in touch with me here.”

Van Pelt added the card to her wallet, nodding gratefully. The animal control team headed for their van with the snake. The CBI agent waited as the coroner loaded the body onto a gurney and Marcus Addison was wheeled away. The forensics guys now had full control over the crime scene and she wasn’t needed here any longer. So, with the Addison house holding nothing more for her at the moment, she too headed for her vehicle to begin the drive back to Sacramento.

***

Lisbon was relieved to get the call from Van Pelt to let her know the identity of the species of the snake that had bit Jane. She’d left the room where Doctor Talavera and her team were trying to stabilise Jane as soon as the phone had started to ring. The last thing she wanted was to distract them while they were working. The consultant’s heart had begun to display a serious arrhythmia and Talavera had needed to shock him to bring it back under control. Watching Jane’s body jerk as the life-saving electric shock ran through him, was not something that she ever wanted to see again, but they’d had to do it twice more before his heart returned to a normal sinus rhythm. His heart had picked up the beat again and it was then that Grace’s call had come through. If it had been anyone other than a member of the team then she would have rejected it, but she was clinging to the hope that the snake had been caught and it seemed they were finally having some luck.

She slipped back into the room. Jane was still unconscious, but at least breathing evenly and the heart monitor’s beeping was regular again.

“That was one of my agents, I’ve got the name of the snake,” said Lisbon, holding up the piece of paper on which she had carefully written the Latin name of the snake, as if it were a winning lottery ticket.

“Sarah, go phone that in now,” said Talavera to the nurse that was closest to Lisbon. She took the piece of paper and dashed away down the corridor to the nurses’ station. Talavera was still focused on her patient. “We need that antivenin stat. He’s had fifteen vials of the polyvalent and he’s only just holding his own. What was it?”

“A Long-nosed Viper,” said Lisbon, her eyes fixed on Jane’s leg, which Talavera was now examining. It was swollen and red, the bite itself was still bleeding. “Shouldn’t that have stopped bleeding by now?”

“Yes, but the venom has anti-coagulant properties. Compartment syndrome is a worry too. We might have to relieve some of the pressure. I’ll avoid it if I can, it would probably mean he’d need surgery to graft new skin, but I’ll keep an eye on it.”

The nurse returned. “I’ve got some good news. San Diego zoo keep the antivenin in stock. They’ve got Long-nosed vipers there. They’re arranging for antivenin to be taken to the airport now and it should be with us within an hour.”

Lisbon breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”

Talavera seemed equally relieved. She picked up Jane’s chart and began writing. “Okay, thanks Sarah. Can you change the dressing on the bite?” 

The nurse nodded and began the delicate exercise of replacing the dressing on the wound. Jane’s skin was damp with sweat, and his blond curls were dark with moisture, lying flat against his head. He was unnaturally still, only his chest moved up and down to indicate that he was alive.

Talavera stepped across the room so that she was beside Lisbon and they could talk. She still had Jane’s chart in her hands. “There isn’t much for you to do here, Agent Lisbon. He’s stable again but I’m not sure if he’s going to regain consciousness for a while. It may not even be until the viper antivenin gets to work.”

Lisbon sighed. Talavera was basically giving her permission to leave without feeling bad about it. She really wanted to stay here with Jane and be here for him - he had no one else - but equally she was needed by her team. They had a murder to solve. And it was really only in bad soap-operas that people hung around at the bedsides of the unconscious sick. The problem was that he looked so vulnerable, swathed in medical equipment and with skin as pale as the sheets he lay on.

“I do need to check in with my team again and find out what’s going on. Then I’ll probably have to go in to the office for a while, but I’ll be back again as soon as I can get away. If his condition changes at all, please, give me a call,” her expression was as serious as she could make it. She really meant the last sentence.

Talavera nodded. “Of course. I’ll let you know the moment I have any news. You are aware that you’re down as his next of kin and emergency contact on his medical records?”

Lisbon was speechless for a moment. She wondered how it was possible that Jane had never thought to mention this to her, and indeed why it had never come up in conversations with medical professionals before when Jane had been injured. The doctors who treated him for his concussion induced blindness should surely have at least confirmed it with her, but then his life had never been at risk then or before. Even after he nearly drowned, he was on his way to recovering a few hours later and they probably assumed that Lisbon didn’t need to be called since she was the one who had fished him out of the water.

“I’m sorry?” she managed. Her eyes were wide with the shock that had set in.

“You’re named as the person to contact should anything happen to him. He didn’t tell you?”

She simply shook her head, but after a moment’s silence began to say out loud some of what she was thinking. “I suppose it makes sense, all his family are dead I think, although there is a brother-in-law… I guess I just assumed there was some long lost relative that he’d want to be contacted…” She paused again. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed logical for it to be her.

“Well it means that you’re the first person that I’ll call if anything happens, and if anything requires consent you’ll need to sign the paperwork. Honestly, now that we have the antivenin on the way, I’m optimistic that it won’t come to that.”

She nodded again, still rather numb from this revelation and the insight into Patrick Jane’s head. She felt both proud that he’d chosen her and sad that she was the closest person that he had to family. 

She turned towards the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” 

Lisbon left Jane’s room and walked along the corridor. She pulled out her cell and dialled Van Pelt but the red-headed agent didn’t answer, so she re-dialled for Cho. He answered on the second ring.

“Jane’s stable but unconscious for the moment so I’m coming back to the office. They’ve got the name of the snake thanks to Van Pelt, and the right antivenin’s on its way. Please tell me that we have some suspects lining up for the Addison murder. Jane seems to think that it has something to do with the illegal importing of snakes,” said Lisbon.

Cho always sounded matter of fact, but the short pause before he began speaking alerted her to a difficult conversation ahead. “We’ve been tracking a lead that might have something to do with that. Kumiko Hatayama works at the pet store and when we went there to look into the missing paperwork, she took off. She’s got a juvenile record, shoplifting mainly, but nothing since. Her family’s a different story. Her brother, Tomio Hatayama, runs with the West Side Bad Boys. He’s into drugs and protection rackets. I contacted the Gang Unit and this guy is one of the hard core. It makes sense that she’d go to him if she was in some kind of trouble. We’re going to need back-up to take him down and if she’s already with him, then he’ll know we’re coming.”

Lisbon sighed. Gang involvement in a murder always made their job that much more difficult and dangerous.

“Okay, get a location for him and I’ll arrange the back-up.”

“We’ve already got it, Boss. He’s at one of their known hideouts. The Gang Unit have had people tailing the top gang members for a couple of weeks.”

“Good, that makes things easier. We need to move quickly on this. Have you heard from Van Pelt?”

“She’s on her way back from the crime scene. One of the animal control people knew our victim and she got some information about Addison’s snake importer from him. He’s got an office in Sacramento.”

“We’ll follow up with him once we’ve dealt with Hatayama. You can pick me up from the hospital on the way to the gang’s location,” said Lisbon.

“Yes, Boss,” said Cho. “We’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he added and rang off.

Lisbon headed out of the hospital, already dialling the number that she would need to organise the extra fire power for the raid.


	4. Jane's Memory

****

Jane’s memory was an amazing thing to others, but to him it was both simply a useful tool and something of a curse. It meant that he’d never be able to forget even the smallest detail of the Red John case files, including the pictures of his wife and child sliced red and bleeding in their family home, because he’d filed them all away so carefully. He could tell you the phone number of anyone in Sacramento as long as they were in the phone book that he’d read, but there wasn’t a single person in there that he’d ever wanted to call. Of course his memory wasn’t perfect, and he had to work to create the memories that stayed, admittedly a lot less than other people, but it wasn’t as simple as glancing around a room and remembering things. He knew how to use his brain though and get more out of it than most other people did.

Perhaps this was why he was aware that he was unconscious, and if he concentrated then he could occasionally catch something from the real world. He’d only experienced this once before and had put it down to the hallucinogen in his system at the time, but maybe it had triggered something.

He was standing in the house of their most recent victim, looking at all the snakes, just as he had a few hours earlier today. Everything about the room was in sharp focus, making the colours more vivid and harsher on his senses. The wooden floor seemed harder under his feet and the air seemed warmer. Time seemed to have stopped. He could watch Lisbon and Rigsby talking to the girlfriend, the Forensic techs examining the body, the snakes themselves, but everything was frozen in a moment. He could move around this silent, still tableau, like looking at an exhibit at a museum.

He smiled, enjoying this thing that his unconscious mind had produced and amazed at what his brain was capable of. He was even able to find the snake that bit him hiding up a corner, ready to attack him as he investigated the packing crate. He could now examine the distinctive diamond pattern and strange nose that would identify the snake, but he expected the animal control people had probably caught it by now. Even if that wasn’t the case, he wasn’t in a position to be able to tell anyone what he’d found.

He didn’t really believe that it was a coincidence that his mind would take him here. The unconscious mind was a powerful thing and he was trying to tell himself something. He’d missed something at the crime scene, something which would help them solve the murder. Now he just needed to work out what it was that he’d seen and failed to process at the time.

He turned around, taking in the scene. He stood beside the tank where the snake should have been placed if Addison hadn’t been shot. He looked to his left and towards the milk snake tank. Then it struck him, firstly that the girlfriend had been lying about something and then that this snake had a secret. The other tanks were closed carefully, this one wasn’t, it was as if the latch hadn’t quite fallen into place, suggesting it had been closed quickly and without due care. That didn’t fit with the careful man that Jane knew Addison to be. The sand in the tank also looked less disturbed and fresher than the other tanks suggesting it had been replaced recently. If this had been the real world then he would have reached into the tank to see if something was hidden there, but he couldn’t right now. He let out a long breath and turned around again.

If the victim had hidden something here then it was because he didn’t trust someone. He’d closed it quickly, most likely because he was disturbed by someone coming into the room and that meant his killer was someone that he knew. Someone who had been in the house with him and that he felt comfortable enough with to get his new snake out of the packing crate and start to put it away. Yet he had needed to hide something from them, so perhaps he didn’t trust them that much.

Jane looked around him again. He wished that the team were really here, rather than just his memory of them. He needed them to gather information so that he could confirm his hypothesis. Even he couldn’t work alone, especially with no fresh input to the problem. He needed to wake up, but he was well aware that he was very ill and probably unconscious for a reason. But if anyone knew that the brain was capable of amazing things, then it was Jane. He was confident that he could use his mind to find his way back to consciousness under normal circumstances, but for all he knew that usually precise instrument of his was now full of interesting drugs and snake venom. It could simply be playing games with him and leading him round in circles.

He took a deep breath, not really knowing if this was something that translated to the real world, closed his eyes and concentrated on the hospital. He thought about the room that he knew he was lying in and the image of Lisbon sat at his bedside. He remembered the nurses and doctor who were treating him, and then his brain refused to go any further. Suddenly it was hung up on his doctor, Doctor Talavera, who seemed to be paying more attention to his case that he would have expected. Why was that?

He found himself now in his hospital room looking back at his own unconscious form lying in a bed. It actually took his breath away for a moment to see himself with so many monitors and drugs being pumped into his body. He wondered for a few moments how his mind had actually managed to put this picture together, but vaguely realised that he’d probably had all the pieces simply by looking around. 

Talavera stood beside the bed with his chart in her hands, frozen in a pose that he’d seen at the point that this memory came from. Talavera was bleeding though, and he didn’t remember that. In fact she had a deep cut across her neck and another two under her white coat that were rapidly bleeding through her clothes.

He muttered the words, but they were loud enough. “Red John.” He looked around the room, desperately trying to work out what his brain was telling him. “She works for Red John? No, she does not. She does not.” He repeated the words, at least partly working it out while he spoke, and he inspected the doctor more closely. This was a victim, or a potential victim, not an accomplice. “So what am I trying to remember?”

He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “Okay, let’s go through what we know. Doctor V. Talavera.” He inspected her name badge. “She’s from a long line of doctors, from money probably, but her small act of rebellion was to become a doctor in the army.” He noted the expensive, but modestly sized St Christopher medal that rested on her collar bone. It had been given to her by a loved one, probably her mother, because she wouldn’t believe in the superstition that it would keep her safe. This woman was meticulous in her appearance; it was one of the first things that had given her away as ex-military. Her hair was dark and pulled back into a neat bun of the kind that women in the military habitually wore, although she wasn’t as particular about it now that she was out. He examined the contours of her face, and something sparked at the back of his memory. He knew this woman. Or he had known her at some point, when she was younger.

His construction of the hospital room was beginning to become fuzzy around the edges. He recognised fatigue in himself and realised that this was tiring work. Perhaps he was underestimating just how much work he might have in front of him before he could push back up to the surface of consciousness. He had been so close this time, perhaps it wouldn’t require that much more work. The light was fading and the room around him darkening. He could hear people talking a long way off, and one of them had just mentioned a drop in his blood pressure. He just had time to think that he was probably about to be out of it again for a while and that this was extremely tedious, before the lights switched off completely and the subconscious of Patrick Jane stopped being something that could be perceived by its owner.

***

Lisbon found herself in one of the worst areas of Sacramento, an area that even the Police only entered with sufficient fire power and backup. As a member of the law enforcement community, she often found herself on the bad side of town because that was where bad men usually decided to do bad things. She strapped on her Kevlar vest and checked her gun as the SWAT team assembled in front of them. Everyone knew what to do; it was now just a matter of doing it and hoping that the gang members were smart enough to go down without a fight. She doubted that it would.

She gave a nod to the leader of the SWAT team and they took a ram to the dirty white door of the ramshackle building they stood in front of. Others were covering the rear of the building, which was just as well because that was the direction that Tomio of course decided to go. He climbed out of a window at the back and into the yard. He didn’t try to shoot anyone, he just ran, whereas the other gang members were not as smart. They were now engaged in an all-out gun battle with Lisbon, Van Pelt and the SWAT team, who were all pinned down in cover around the house. It was somewhat miraculous, but by timing his run carefully and choosing a path at the edge of the gun battle, their suspect was uninjured and still running.

Rigsby took off after Tomio and Cho ran after them, a few steps behind because he had to dodge a bullet first. Lisbon didn’t actually witness them take down their suspect because she was concentrating on not getting shot, and one of the other gang members who seemed pretty determined to take her head off. She hunkered down behind a truck parked on the drive way and waited for the right moment to return fire. The gang member moved towards her, and for a moment she wondered if she could get her shot off before he rounded on her hiding place. Luckily Grace, from her cover behind a large tree, caught him in a crossfire and he took a bullet to the shoulder from Van Pelt’s weapon. Lisbon gave her a quick nod of thanks before she turned her attention back to the other gang members who weren’t writhing on the ground with a gunshot wound in their shoulder.

When the shooting finally stopped, most of the gang members were wounded or dead, and Lisbon couldn’t help being disappointed that it had ended this way. She knew they were going to find a drug stash at the very least in the house, perhaps even a meth lab, but some of the men who had died here were actually really still boys. Teenagers who had thought that life in a gang was the only way, and they all had mothers somewhere who would have to be told what had happened to them. She holstered her gun and looked over to where Rigsby and Cho had last been seen.

One of the SWAT team came out of the house tugging a scared looking girl with him. Lisbon immediately recognised the name of the pet store on her t-shirt.

“I found her hiding in a cupboard under the kitchen sink,” said the SWAT guy. “Is she the one you were looking for?”

Lisbon nodded. “Kumiko Hatayama?”

The girl nodded. She looked shocked more than anything else and clearly wasn’t usually involved in shoot outs. “Van Pelt, put her in the car, we’ll chat to her back at the office. Did you see where Rigsby and Cho went?”

Van Pelt shook her head. Lisbon looked around again, the two agents were nowhere to be seen and that worried her. She really didn’t need any more of her team in the hospital. Hopefully they had the suspect in custody and were now bringing him back to base.

Lisbon’s phone rang and when she pulled it out, she could see that it was Doctor Talavera calling her. She answered it immediately.

***

It was annoying when suspects ran, but Rigsby usually didn’t mind a short chase. His long legs and general level of fitness meant that he almost always had the upper hand when it came to catching people on the run. But Tomio was seemingly fit too and tall, he’d just leapt over two backyard fences with apparent ease and was now making a run towards the main road. This was not good news, because even though Tomio hadn’t fired a shot yet, he was carrying a gun and they were now running towards a busier area.

Rigsby had already tried shouting at him to stop, but in his experience, other than the requirement in law to identify themselves, it was a waste of breath. He decided to save his breath for running. He glanced behind him to see how far back Cho was, but he couldn’t see the other CBI agent. Suddenly he worked out where his partner was, he caught a glimpse of someone else running along the path that went down the back of the houses, behind the line of the fence. As Tomio jumped over the final fence, Cho was there to tackle him from the side.

Tomio hit the ground with Cho on top of him as Rigsby vaulted over the last fence. Rigsby could see Tomio hit out and scramble out from Cho’s grasp, who was reeling from the pain of Tomio’s fist connecting with his nose. Tomio moved backwards along the ground, and started to aim his gun at Cho. Rigsby had to move quickly, but Tomio hadn’t noticed that he was coming round from behind him, and he was able to simply grab hold of the gun. But Tomio didn’t want to let go. Rigsby gave the gun a twist, and at the same time threw his elbow back as hard as his could into Tomio’s chest. It worked and the cry of pain from Tomio as he let go of the firearm was actually pretty satisfying.

Cho had recovered his composure and took advantage of Rigsby’s move to cuff their suspect. Cho’s nose was red and already beginning to swell, but not bleeding. The two agents exchanged a nod and Rigsby got to his feet, pulling their suspect with him. Cho pulled out an evidence bag from his pocket and handed it to Rigsby for the gun that Tomio had been carrying. Rigsby removed the ammunition and cleared the round in the chamber.

“Come on, let’s get him back. Call Lisbon and let her know we’re on our way,” said Cho.

Rigsby nodded and pulled out his phone. When he dialled Lisbon she was engaged, so they began the walk back to the gang’s house and he tried calling again as they walked. This time he got through.

“We’ve got Tomio in custody, Boss,” said Rigsby.

“Good work,” said Lisbon. “Grace has got the sister. I want you to take them both back and start interrogating them.”

“You’re not coming back with us?”

“I’ve just had a call from the hospital. Jane’s taken a turn for the worse so I need to head over there.” Lisbon’s voice was all business as she said this, but Rigsby knew she was just doing a good job of hiding her worry.

“Okay,” he replied. “We’ll take care of everything back at the office.”

“When you’re done interrogating this pair, I want you to go and see the snake importer. Van Pelt has the address.”

“Yes, Boss.”

Lisbon just hung up, which was a sure sign that she was occupied with other things. They made their way back to where Van Pelt was waiting with the SUV. Lisbon was already gone in their other vehicle by the time they got there.


	5. Not going anywhere

****

Agent Lisbon broke the speed limit to get to the hospital, and then she ran from the car to Jane’s room. Apparently his blood pressure had taken a sudden dive and his kidneys were beginning to fail. Talavera had put him on dialysis as a measure to prevent things from getting any worse. Lisbon didn’t like the sound of any of this though.

Talavera saw Lisbon come in and looked up from her checking of Jane’s monitors. Jane himself was much as she’d left him, still pale and sweating, hooked up to a huge array of medical equipment and with red blotches on his skin from the allergic reaction. The machines that monitored him beeped quietly and, more importantly, rhythmically. His eyes had dark red circles around them and his breathing was laboured. There were several bags of liquid hung on the IV stand and their contents were running down a narrow tube into Jane’s arm. This was the picture of a seriously ill man.

“He’s worse?” asked Lisbon, seeing no point in beating about the bush. Her face was a picture of concern.

Talavera took a moment to consider. “He’s actually improved a little since I called you, but his blood pressure is still too low. He’s been in and out of consciousness, mostly out, but asking for you when he’s been talking. He’s still not making much sense though. I’m hoping the dialysis will mean he’s more lucid, but he’s been having a bad allergic reaction to the monovalent antivenin.”

“Worse than the other stuff?”

Talavera frowned. “About the same, but that was fairly a severe reaction anyway. In many ways he’s doing quite well. We haven’t had any further cardiac episodes and now that we’ve got the correct antivenin, we can stop any further damage being done by the venom. I think it might help him, just having a familiar face here.”

“What about the dialysis? That can’t be a good sign.” Lisbon headed towards Jane’s bedside, wondering what she was doing back here. After all, she couldn’t help her consultant in any meaningful way but yet she still felt the need to be here.

“Mostly it’s supportive. If we help out his kidneys then we can give them some recovery time. I’m hopeful that the damage won’t be permanent, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Lisbon nodded, not really understanding how these things worked but at least seeing the logic behind the procedure. She sat on the lone chair in the corner and waited. She wasn’t going to go anywhere now, and the team would call her if they came up with anything. She’d already noted that Jane had no one else, no one other than her and she already felt guilty about having to take off before. This time she’d just have to wait it out and see if the dialysis helped. If he had been asking for her then she had to be here. 

She checked her phone again, Grace had sent her the standard background checks on all of the main suspects, but there were no other messages from the team. She settled back in the chair, answered a couple of emails from other colleagues about paperwork that she had filed, and read the background checks. She tried not to clock watch and did her best to ignore the sounds of the medical machinery that was keeping Jane alive. An entire hour passed.

Jane emitted a groan and moved his head just a little. Lisbon’s eyes widened and she glanced over at Talavera to see if she should get her hopes up.

Talavera checked the monitors again. “Try saying something to him, sometimes he’s lucid enough to reply.”

She got to her feet and approached the bed. “Jane, it’s Lisbon. Can you hear me?”

Jane tilted his head towards her. “Lisbon?” he mumbled through the ever-present oxygen mask. “Lisbon?” His eyes struggled to pull themselves open and he looked up at Lisbon.

“Hi there,” said Lisbon, giving him as reassuring smile as she could manage.

“Hey.” He favoured her with a smile of his own in return. It wasn’t even close to its usual brilliance but to Lisbon it was somewhat miraculous. He blinked at her.

“You look like crap,” she said, knowing Jane would appreciate her honesty and humour.

The smile broadened. “Such a… way with words, Lisbon… I feel… like crap.” His eyes closed again and his brow furrowed. “Did you… get the snake?”

Lisbon nodded. “Yes, it was a Long Nosed Viper. Apparently the venom is pretty weak compared to other vipers, but it looks like it injected a lot of it. I guess, like a lot of the people you meet, it took a dislike to you because you annoyed it.”

Jane gave a nod, eyes still closed and still smiling in that annoying way that he had. “Tol’ you… it was a vicious one... Meanwhile… I solved… your… case for you.” His eyes opened again just in time to see the look of amused disbelief on her face. “Don’t smirk…I’m perfectly serious. You need to check… the milk snake tank.”

“Jane, you’ve been laid up here in the hospital and pretty much unconscious for the entire time since I left. How could you solve the case? You don’t even know what we’ve been working on.”

“The brain is an amazing thing, Lisbon… Amazing… Go check the tank… tell me what you find there. I’ll tell you who killed Marcus Addison.” He sounded half asleep, or at least as if he would drop off at any moment. He blinked at her again.

“You need to rest and concentrate on getting well.” She met his eyes so that he would know that she meant every word. “Forget about the case. Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt are interviewing two suspects right now that look good for it.”

He shook his head and gave Lisbon one of his withering looks, the kind that he reserved for when he felt she was being particularly naïve. “Whoever they are… you’ve got the wrong people.” He did his best to reach out a hand, but failed even in trying to lift it off the bed. Lisbon had to listen hard to hear what he was saying. “It was someone he trusts. Not as much as… they thought he did though… Tell me more about…the suspects.”

Talavera didn’t look happy at the way this conversation was going, and Lisbon noted the disapproving look on her face. She knew Jane, however. If he had information on the case then he would be desperate to do the big reveal, and for him (as always) to show that he had worked out who the killer was before anyone else. Not that Lisbon believed for one moment that he actually knew every time who the murdered was; it was just that he had very good skills for reading faces. When he combined that with his talent for getting people to give themselves away, it meant he could usually identify the killer before anyone else.

Lisbon sighed. “Their names are Kumiko and Tomio Hatayama. Kumiko works at one of the pet stores and was Marcus’ sort of protégé. Tomio is her older brother and runs with one of the Sacramento gangs. We figure that she’s involved in illegal snake importing somehow and he’s her connection to the criminal element.”

Jane shook his head again, weakly and without much enthusiasm. “She was trying… to go straight, yes?” He took a few long breaths before continuing. “You’ll find her involvement… in illegal snake importing is minimal, just enough to make her… run to her brother for help.”

Lisbon frowned. “Okay, then who else? There’s a snake importer that Marcus dealt with, Juan Romanos; a guy who manages his main store, Jonathan Barnes, and Lois, his girlfriend. None of them have motive at the moment.”

Jane’s eyes closed slowly. “It was someone he trusted enough to let them into his home… without any questions or worry, but not enough… to trust them with whatever he hid in that snake tank.”

“That could be any one of them.”

“I know, Lisbon… it’ll come to me… how to catch them,” said Jane, sleepily and blinking hard. His eyelids fell shut once more. This time his body went limp too and she knew that he was out of it again. She gave him a quick squeeze on the shoulder, unsure why she felt the gesture was needed, but it was.

Talavera looked none too pleased. “Agent Lisbon, he doesn’t need the stress of work at the moment. I won’t be able to let you in here if you’re going to discuss cases with him.”

Lisbon frowned. “He’s a serial obsessive and right now he’s obsessing about finding the killer of Marcus Addison. I can guarantee that talking about it will make him less stressed rather than more. He lives for puzzles like this.”

It was Talavera who frowned now. “Since you’ve been here his vital signs have improved a little. Perhaps he did need to get something off his chest. Just try to keep your discussions short, I’m still a little concerned about his blood oxygen levels and he needs a lot of rest.”

Lisbon nodded, and once again sat on the uncomfortable plastic chair that she had vacated a few moments earlier. It was now early afternoon and she’d skipped lunch in order to raid a gang’s hideout. Talavera finished taking her readings and left the room, leaving Lisbon to contemplate whether she should leave Jane’s side to forage for a sandwich, or if she was better just waiting here a bit longer. 

She looked over at the unconscious consultant and wondered how much of his reasoning she could trust in his current drugged and ill state. He’d seemed reasonably coherent, remarkably so in fact, but then Talavera had said that the dialysis might improve things. It wouldn’t hurt to call Van Pelt and tell her to look more into Romanos, Birchley and Barnes’s backgrounds, or ask her to see if there was anything hidden in the Milk Snake tank at Addison’s house. The crime scene hadn’t been released yet, nor would it be for a while and no one would have removed the other snakes yet.

She took out her phone and called Van Pelt, and then she dialled again to call in a couple of favours.

***

Rigsby and Cho wanted to interview Tomio Hatayama first, but he knew the system and exactly what his rights were. He was sat there with his lawyer, and his plan seemed to be to say nothing. They left him to stew for a while and moved on to Kumiko. Cho went in whilst Rigsby observed through the two way mirror.

Kumiko just sat looking scared, with her arms wrapped around herself. She watched Cho come in and sit down with trepidation.

Cho opened the file on the desk. “Why did you run?”

She looked down at the table. “I got a snake for my brother.”

“The pet store gets snakes for people all the time,” replied Cho.

“It was a Burmese Anaconda, they’re protected. There’s this guy, he’s the boss of Tommy’s gang. Has a thing for making himself look big by keeping bad ass animals. He wanted an Anaconda. I think he’d seen a film or something. They’re deadly. They’ll squeeze the life out of you if you let them.”

Cho used his best contemptuous look on her. “So you thought it would be a good idea to get this gang boss a deadly snake?”

Kumiko looked a little shocked. “No! He knew that I worked at the pet store and had access to the imports. He put pressure on Tomio, and made it a personal slight if he didn’t get what he wanted. Tommy came to me and begged me to help him. This guy… you don’t want to cross him.” Her eyes pleaded with the agent to understand. Cho understood all too well what the peer pressure within a gang was capable of and what it meant to cross other gang members.

“You should have gone to the police,” said Cho, still unwilling to concede the point.

“Yeah, you would have done a lot if I’d told you a gang member wanted an illegal snake. You’d have told me to stop wasting your time and that Tommy should just get out of the gang. It’s not that simple.” Her voice got just a little louder and more animated. She leaned back in her chair and looked pointedly at the two way mirror. “All you’re interested in is shooting people that shoot other people. What good is that?”

“That’s not all that we’re interested in, but right now we do want to know who killed your boss, Marcus Addison,” said Cho. “We think he found out that you’d put his business in jeopardy by buying an illegal snake through the pet store. If he was found out and fined, then he would have lost his reputation and a lot of money. He confronted you at his home and you killed him.”

Kumiko shook her head vigorously. “No way. I’d never hurt Marcus, he gave me a chance when no one else would. I used to hang out in the pet shop, I was in there every day if I could be. I got to know him and the reptiles pretty well. Finally he gave me a job and taught me about the reptiles in the evenings. I wouldn’t want him dead, because without him there I probably don’t have a job.” Her words sounded sincere but then in Cho’s experience, murderers were often good liars. “And I wasn’t at his house last night. Look, okay, he knew about the snake and that I’d faked the paperwork. He caught me doing it. But he told me he’d square it somehow. The one he was really angry with was Juan Romanos, he thought he shouldn’t have helped me. But I guess he was equally pissed at Lois.”

“Why was he angry at Lois?” asked Cho.

“I run errands between the stores in Sacramento. Sometimes customers ask for things that we don’t keep in stock at the smaller stores, so I run them over from the one I work at. Lois is in charge of the L Street store so I see quite a bit of her. I went to see Juan at his Sacramento office, and Lois was there. She saw me, but asked me not to tell Marcus. I assumed she was buying a snake, as a surprise for Marcus’ collection or something, but when he found out about the anaconda… I asked him about Lois and he didn’t know anything about it. That’s weird because it was his birthday that week, and he would have had to sign off the owner’s permits at some point. Then there’s other paperwork that he’d have needed to do if it was being bought through the shop. Normally he’d be excited about a new snake too… One snake, that he could hide I guess, but if Lois had been doing something illegal too, well I can understand why he’d have been angry. He said he was going to have to have a talk with Juan about it.”

There was a tap on the glass of the two way mirror. Cho picked up his folder, and got up from his chair. “We’ll have more questions for you later.”

“It’s not like I can go anywhere,” said Kumiko.

Cho ignored her and left the room. In the corridor outside Van Pelt and Rigsby were waiting for him. He didn’t have to say anything, Grace was ready with the reason that she’d interrupted the interrogation.

“Lisbon called. Jane came round and he thinks that the murderer hid something in the milk snake tank. Lisbon wasn’t sure how to take it, but Jane’s usually right about this stuff,” said Van Pelt. “She wants us to go and take a look.”

Cho and Rigsby exchanged a look, but if Lisbon thought it was worth looking into then that’s what they would do. 

“I guess it might make Jane a bit easier for the doctors to deal with if he thinks he’s helping,” said Rigsby.

“He’s probably on medication and it’s a waste of our time,” said Cho. He wasn’t intending to be mean, more pragmatic.

“Yes, but Grace and I can run over there and check. We’re talking an hour tops. It might even give us a lead.” Rigsby was giving him that look, the one that was a bit like a puppy wanting a new bone. It wasn’t hard to give in, especially given that one of their colleagues was in the hospital.

“Go on,” said Cho. “Just don’t complain if you don’t find the answer to this case in the snake tank, and get the snake expert from animal control to meet you there.”

“Already done,” said Grace, as efficient as ever. “He gave me his card. Tom Courtney.”

Cho didn’t fail to miss the look of jealousy that flickered across Rigsby’s eyes before he schooled them into a professional visage. It happened almost every time Van Pelt mentioned a new man though, so it was something that he was used to and not unusual in any way. Cho ignored it.

“Okay,” said Rigsby. “I’ll drive.”

Cho watched the two of them head for the elevator, Grace’s dark red hair bobbing as she walked. Cho marvelled that Rigsby could put up with having the woman he loved right beside him every day and yet so far out of reach. They seemed to have worked something out though. Cho had his own work to do though, and couldn’t dwell on the love life (or lack of it) of his colleagues. He needed to go and visit Romanos, the snake importer, who seemed to be at the centre of this and do a bit of digging into Lois Birchley’s background. It was already too late to catch Romanos at his office, so he arranged for his prisoners to be returned to custody and then started his research.

***

Van Pelt and Rigsby arrived at Addison residence in record time. Rigsby’s driving was somewhat more aggressive than it really needed to be given that they weren’t in any particular hurry. Van Pelt ignored it and just hung on at the appropriate moments. They arrived in one piece and she’d never actually thought he was being dangerous, just more assertive that normal.

It was now late evening and the house was in darkness. It still had crime scene tape across the door, so they sliced through it, turned on the lights and headed into the house, hearing the Animal Control truck pull up as they did so. Tom jumped out, smiling as he saw Van Pelt. He grabbed some equipment from the trunk and headed over to join the two agents. 

“Hey there Agents, what can I help you with that couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” he smiled.

Van Pelt smiled back. “We want to have a look at one of the snake’s tanks. We think that Marcus Addison may have hidden something there.”

Tom nodded. “Okay, we’d best go and have a look. Which one?”

Rigsby indicated for the snake expert to lead the way. “Jane seemed to think it was the milk snake tank.”

Tom frowned as he walked. “It looks like the milks snake’s tank wasn’t closed properly. I didn’t notice that before. At least they’re not venomous.” They entered the room where the snakes were kept. “Then again milk snakes have a nasty bite.”

Van Pelt and Rigsby exchanged a look. “Maybe Jane was onto something,” said Rigsby.

Tom reached for a new crate to put the snake in while they examined the tank. He put on a pair of gloves and reached in to retrieve the milk snake. He did it in one smooth action, grabbing it behind the head and quickly depositing it into the crate. He fixed the lid on firmly.

“All yours, Agents,” said Tom, indicating the empty tank.

Rigsby snapped on a pair of gloves. He felt around in the substrate for a moment and Van Pelt saw his hand close around something. He pulled a small bag out of the tank, it was black and although now dirty with soil from the tank, it was clearly made of velvet. Rigsby opened it gingerly and tipped the contents onto the palm of his hand. Van Pelt’s eyes went wide as about fifty sparkling diamonds fell into Rigsby’s hand.

“Wow,” said Van Pelt, unable to hold back some kind of exclamation. “That’s got to be several million in diamonds.”

Tom’s eyes showed his surprise too. “How would he even have got them? The guy owned a pet store.”

Rigsby nodded. “I think that explains why Marcus Addison was killed. Someone wanted the diamonds.”

“But they didn’t find them, so why would they kill Marcus?” asked Tom.

“Jane would know,” said Van Pelt wistfully. She hoped he was getting better. This case was highlighting why they needed him. They would never have thought to look for the diamonds without his tip.

Tom chipped in again, “It sounds like they didn’t know how to handle snakes. Otherwise they’d have known that the viper would head towards the heater.” Tom nodded at the wall heater that was right next to where the packing crate had been. Then he nodded at a metal pole with a hook on the end that rested against the wall. “And they’d have known how to use a hook to put back in its tank.”

Rigsby sighed. “That puts us back to a gang connection, or at least someone who didn’t work at the pet store. They must have known at least how to handle a snake.”

Grace’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. They can’t all be experts.”

“To be honest neither Jonathan Barnes nor Marcus’s girlfriend were keen on the reptiles. Jonathan thought they were too much trouble. Lois preferred the fluffy animals. I don’t think I ever saw her handle a snake. I heard that she was trying to persuade Marcus to get rid of some of the really venomous ones,” said Tom.

Grace’s eyebrows raised, just a little with interest at this new information. Rigsby exchanged a look with the red headed agent that told her that he too had put this together with the information from Kumiko and was now considering Lois Birchley to be their prime suspect.

***


	6. This stupid plan of yours

****

 

Lisbon jerked awake, unaware that she’d even been sleeping. She got a further shock when she looked over and saw that it was daylight outside. She’d spent the entire, rather uncomfortable, night sleeping in a chair beside Jane’s bed. The nurse had somewhat taken pity on her and brought a more comfortable padded chair into the room when it became clear that she wasn’t going home. No one had suggested that she leave and she wondered if Talavera had a hand in that.

She had intended to go home, but Jane had awoken as she was about to leave. Lisbon knew that he hated hospitals but hadn’t realised exactly how much until his heart rate had begun to climb as she buttoned her jacket. She’d muttered that it was actually very late, it would be easier for her to stay and sat down again, which seemed to lead to a corresponding drop in his heart rate after a few moments. He was clearly embarrassed, trying to brush it off as another arrhythmia caused by the snake venom, but the way that he refused to look at her told her otherwise. Lisbon didn’t press the point, but hoped Jane would realise that she didn’t care. He was very ill and not exactly himself. Normally he’d have hidden his feelings much better or made a joke about them if they were revealed. She almost wished that she always had a heart monitor available to give away Jane’s elevated pulse, at least then she might have a hope in hell of knowing when he was lying to her.

He turned his head away from her and fell asleep again soon afterwards, but was restless throughout the night, occasionally even crying out and Lisbon was glad she was there to bring him out of the bad dreams. She doubted he would remember any of this in the morning, in fact she hoped that he wouldn’t because he would simply see it as another invasion of his privacy. If there was anything that she had learned about Patrick Jane it was that he didn’t like others to see him for who he was.

Someone had placed a blanket over her at some point, but she didn’t remember when. The night hadn’t been particularly restful for her either, with Jane’s nightmares and the hospital staff doing their hourly checks and replacements of IV medication, sleep had been patchy. She was actually quite surprised that either of them had slept at all, but she’d been so tired by the early hours that she hadn’t really had much control over her body shutting itself down to get some much needed rest. She assumed Jane had found the same thing happening, but amplified by his condition.

She looked over at one of the reasons for her poor night’s sleep and saw that Jane’s eyes were open. A nurse was swapping out the oxygen mask for a nasal cannula with two prongs that fitted into Jane’s nostrils. He looked about as bad as she felt, but he was most definitely breathing more easily and he was looking at her.

“Hey there, sleepy head,” said Jane. His voice was still weak but it sounded less breathy now.

“Hey yourself, you’re sounding better,” said Lisbon, rapidly pushing her hair back away from her face and trying to straighten her crumpled clothes. She’d have to go down to the car soon and get the overnight bag that she always carried in the trunk so that she could change. It was a must when you never knew where the next body would be found or when.

“I think they found a corticosteroid that worked to control the allergic reaction,” said Jane, he took a deep breath as he warily eyed the nurse. “I can breathe again. Well, better anyway.” Lisbon noted that the angry red rash that had covered his body was lessening. She was pleased. It seemed to be a good sign.

Lisbon reached for her phone and began scanning through the messages. She immediately opened the late night report from Van Pelt and Rigsby. Reading it on the small screen was difficult, but still possible.

“Huh, you were right. Rigsby and Van Pelt found diamonds hidden in the milk snake’s tank.” Lisbon looked up to see Jane’s reaction, expecting at least some surprise, but there was none. “They’re probably smuggled conflict diamonds.”

“You should go and get some breakfast, Lisbon,” said Jane, trying for his normal tone and failing. “Then I need you to read me those reports that Van Pelt sent you.”

“What makes you think that Van Pelt sent me any reports?”

“Please, Lisbon, I’m suffering from snake bite envenomation not brain damage,” replied Jane. “You have an on-going Murder investigation. Van Pelt is obviously going to send you reports on the progress of the investigation. Cho may also have sent you a report but he would have added it to the ones that Grace has no doubt lovingly typed up. Rigsby probably got Grace to write his up for him because he considers her style to be better and more thorough than his own. Also he hates writing reports.” He allowed a small smile to cross his pale lips.

Lisbon held up a hand. Jane was basically correct; Van Pelt had actually dropped off the reports at the hospital front desk on her way home, as well as sending her electronic copies to her phone. One of the night nurses had brought them up while Jane slept. “Okay, yes, I have reports, but there’s a lot of information here. This could take a while.”

“Then you’d better hurry up with breakfast,” he said. “I’ll still be here when you get back. Wake me if I’m asleep.” The nurse didn’t look at all happy at this command, but still let it pass without comment.

“What did your last slave die of, Jane? You’re supposed to be resting not trying to solve a murder.”

“I’ll rest while you get breakfast.” He closed his eyes.

“That isn’t what I meant.”

Jane opened one eye. “Right now, you’re the one disturbing my rest. Go.”

Lisbon sighed, and gave up. She made her way to the hospital canteen where she claimed black coffee and a rather stale muffin as her breakfast. She took her time over breakfast, and then went to collect her bag and change into her fresh clothes before going back to Jane’s room. She was hoping to give the ill consultant more time to snooze and recharge, but suspected that he wouldn’t rest well while there was a case to be solved.

Even though he was being thoroughly annoying, she was aware that he was putting a lot of effort into appearing to be as normal as he could. Jane liked to keep up appearances, but it was going to tire him out and she wasn’t sure how much time they’d have to talk. This was all assuming that Talavera didn’t throw her out immediately, because Lisbon knew he still wasn’t really well enough for any of this.

She wasn’t even sure why she was contemplating continuing to ask for his help when he was clearly still extremely ill. She had started doing this because she felt that it was helping him, but now that he was actually improving, she wondered if this was just because she wanted to solve the case? Maybe she should just tell him that she was cutting him off, but he seemed to be enjoying it and it was keeping his mind off being ill. She was dreading the real problems which would start when he was actually well enough to get out of the hospital bed, but luckily that wouldn’t be for a while yet.

She stopped off for yet more coffee on her way back to Jane’s room. She almost hoped that he would be asleep when she returned to his room, so that she could have some time to think. But when she opened the door, he was resolutely awake. She gave a small inward sigh and gave up any hopes that she could persuade Jane to rest rather than wade through the reports.

The next few hours were spent reading official reports to Jane. She read them because Jane could neither hold them for long enough, nor focus on the documents. The drugs were playing with his vision and he was too weak to even hold a piece of paper up for any serious length of time. He found it frustrating, but if the only way to get the information to Jane was to read it out, then she would do it.

The reports detailed what each suspect had said and done during questioning, what the crime scene looked like and what evidence had been recovered. Periodically Lisbon would stop to gulp coffee, and infrequently Jane would declare something irrelevant and get her to move on to the next document. If there were photos then she would hold them up so that he could see them. By the end of this exercise Lisbon’s voice was hoarse and Jane’s eyes were looking heavy.

“That’s it,” said Lisbon as she closed the last file.

“I want you to give all the suspects a piece of information for me. This piece of information will bring the most likely suspect to my door where I can verify their guilt,” said Jane, fixing her with a serious gaze. His voice was quieter than usual, so for a moment she thought that she’d misheard, but of course she hadn’t.

“You have got to be out of your mind. We are not bringing murder suspects to a hospital.” Lisbon knew that her face must be a picture of disbelief as she snapped back her reply. His request was so typically Jane that she almost forgot that yesterday she’d been concerned that he might actually die.

“I can’t very well go to them, can I? I’m hooked up to all manner of machines and have more tubes running into and out of my body than I care to think about. The mountain must come to Mohammed.” He then explained to her exactly how he planned to do this, which opened a whole new can of worms.

Lisbon was open mouthed in disbelief for a moment but Jane actually appeared to be entirely serious. But, of course, he pulled this kind of thing all the time. Why should it be any different just because he was in a hospital bed?

Lisbon rolled her eyes. “Doctor Talavera will never allow it and you know it. You can’t put yourself in danger like this, not when you’re already sick. That’s before we’ve even got to all the procedural and legal reasons why it’s an extremely bad idea. Any case we took to court that heard we’d questioned our suspects in a hospital room would get thrown out in the opening arguments.”

“Really, Lisbon, you do exaggerate. It’ll be fine and you’ll be here so I won’t be in any danger. When have I ever steered you wrong?” He quickly added, “don’t answer that. Besides it wouldn’t be questioning exactly.”

“Then what would it be?”

“Questioning implies that I require answers of some kind. If everything in the information that you just read me is accurate, then I already know who killed Marcus Addison, so we would just be acquiring the proof. It would be verification at the most.”

Lisbon reached out and put a hand on Jane’s forehead for a few seconds. Jane was too weak still to do anything but lie there and she knew that. He raised a hand a few inches off the bed, but didn’t get any closer to batting her away.

“What was that for?” he asked as she sat back in her chair.

“I thought you must have a high fever that’s giving you delusions, but it seems you’re just being your usual ridiculous self.”

“That is somewhat unfair. I’m strung out on heavy duty painkillers so I’m more than my usual ridiculous self.” His eyes flicked up towards the bags of liquid that hung from the IV stand and he flashed her a wan smile.

“Yes, that is really making me more likely to agree to this stupid plan of yours,” Lisbon replied, sarcastically.

“Oh come on, Lisbon, you know that I’m joking. I’m perfectly lucid now the dialysis is working and the anti-venin has properly kicked in. I promise you, if you bring the suspects here then I will get you your murderer. More importantly I will get you your proof.”

“Jane, if you’re spinning me lies here and this all blows up in your face, then there will be nothing that can save this case or my job.”

“Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon, how long have we known each other and you still think I’d lie to you?”

“It’s because I know you, Jane,” replied Lisbon, without even having to think about it.

“You wound me deeply,” said Jane, feigning a hurt look. “I have nothing but your best interests at heart, and you know that I’m not going to put myself in danger without a Lisbon shaped safety net.”

Lisbon rolled her eyes again. She was never quite sure how he managed to talk her into these things. Perhaps it was the way he managed to look like a kicked puppy if she said “no” to him. Then again he’d work out a way to make it happen if she didn’t help him. He’d probably hypnotise some poor nurse into calling them and asking them to come in for imaginary tests, or something worse. It was always the something worse that worried her most.

“Fine, I’ll arrange it. If,” she paused to make it clear that this was conditional. “If Doctor Talavera clears it.”

Jane was blinking heavily and looking more tired again. “Very well, if you must, but it’ll all be fine.”

“Sure, Jane. Look, get some rest okay. I’ll sort it out.”

Jane nodded, his eyes already closing. She really, really wished she could go back to sleep too, but unfortunately she had a murder to solve.

***

Lisbon walked into the office to find Van Pelt and Rigsby hard at work on paperwork and background searches. Van Pelt was typing away at her computer as rapidly as she could, while Rigsby sat at the side of her desk flicking through a sheaf of papers.

Lisbon approached the two agents.

“How’s it going?”

Van Pelt sighed. “I can’t find any connection to any kind of fence that could dispose of the diamonds for our suspects. So, either it’s someone unknown to us, or we’re back to a gang connection, but we’ve basically ruled out Kumiko and her brother. The Gang Unit arrested a gang boss and found an anaconda at his home. She was telling the truth.” She stopped typing and looked up at Lisbon. “How’s Jane?”

“Better than he was. I’m happy he’s feeling better but…” she gave both of them a despairing look.

“He’s up to something, isn’t he?” said Rigsby, putting down the papers he was flicking through.

“He has a plan to identify the murderer.” Lisbon told them what Jane had in mind.

Rigsby and Van Pelt exchanged a look.

Rigsby closed the file he’d been working on. “So should we go and talk to them then? What time do you want us at the hospital?”

“Why do you think I said yes to it?” asked Lisbon, suddenly feeling a little defensive.

“You always say yes in the end, Boss,” said Van Pelt with a small, somewhat wicked, smile.

Lisbon positively pouted. “I do not.”

Rigsby grabbed his jacket carefully avoiding Lisbon’s eyes. “I’ll talk to Barnes,” he called, as he headed out of the bullpen.

Lisbon did her best to ignore Rigsby’s swift exit, and continued her conversation with Van Pelt. “Jane’s still sick. He made me feel guilty,” she said, by way of explanation.

“I understand, Boss,” said Van Pelt, as she stood and got her sidearm out of her desk drawer. “You can’t be mean to guy in hospital. I’ll have a chat with Lois.”

Lisbon nodded in agreement. “Where’s Cho?”

“He’s interviewing Juan Romanos in the interrogation room,” said Van Pelt.

“Good, I’ve got some information for him. I called in a favour with the customs people at the port when Jane told me he thought that something was hidden in the snake tank. My guess was drugs, but the information that I got on Romanos will still be useful.” Lisbon turned, leaving Van Pelt to her assignment.

***

Cho sat opposite Juan Romanos with a folder in front of him. Romanos had dark here, tanned skin and an expensive taste in clothes. Everything that he wore seemed to be from a high end fashion label of some kind, including the unbelievably expensive looking leather jacket that he wore.

“You import and export snakes,” said Cho.

Romanos nodded. “Yes, and I have all the correct permits to do it.”

There was a knock on the door and Lisbon entered, the trace of a smile on her face and a slim brown folder in her hands. She sat down beside Cho and slid the file to him so that he could read it.

“I’m Agent Lisbon. I expect Agent Cho has already gone over why we’ve asked you here.” Clearly she’d been listening on the other side of the one way mirror.

“Yes, but I still don’t see what Marcus’ death has to do with me. I’m just a businessman who happened to sell snakes to his store,” said Romanos.

“I’m sure that you’ve been careful to make sure your business looks legitimate,” said Lisbon. “In your line of work it would be pretty stupid not to keep the small stuff above board.”

Cho scanned the file quickly and found what he read very interesting. He recognised the start of a Jane plan when he saw one, but of course Romanos had no idea what he was letting himself in for.

“I’m sorry, Agent Lisbon,” said Romanos. “I really don’t understand what you’re getting at. I’ll have to get my lawyer in here if this is going to become some sort of interrogation. I was told you just wanted to clear up a few outstanding points about the snake.”

“How do you explain the diamonds?” Cho usually found that straight questions worked best and gave suspects less time to think.

“What diamonds?” asked Romanos, although the pause before he said it was just slightly too long to make Cho think that he was telling the truth. It was the obvious reply to the question and Cho had been expecting it.

“The diamonds that were in the snake,” Lisbon said, catching Cho’s eye. 

Cho nodded, but Romanos looked perplexed.

Lisbon continued. “Marcus left a notebook that explained what he’d found. But the diamonds are missing. We think he hid them or perhaps the murderer took them.” Lisbon’s phone rang. “Just a moment, it’s the hospital.”

She opened the phone and talked, without bothering to leave the room. “Jane was awake?” Pause. “How would he know where the diamonds are?” Pause. “Okay, well if he thinks he knows.” Pause. “Fine, we’ll get down to the hospital as soon as we can, but it might take a while. I guess there’s no hurry.” She signed off and shut the phone. She turned to Cho, pointedly ignoring Romanos. “Jane says he saw something when the snake bit him. He thinks he knows where Marcus hid the diamonds, but he lapsed back into unconsciousness before he could say where.”

Cho nodded. “We probably shouldn’t talk about this in front of a suspect.”

Lisbon glanced over to Romanos with a guilty look. “You’re right. Sorry, that was unprofessional of me. Our consultant was bitten by a snake at the crime scene, I guess we’re all a little concerned about him. We’ll sort this out later.”

Cho and Lisbon continued their questioning for a little longer, but eventually Romanos asked for his lawyer, so they stopped for a break while the lawyer was called. The stepped out of the room.

“Do you think he bought it?” asked Lisbon.

Cho shrugged. “I think so, but he may not be the one we want.”

“He’s got the connections at the port to fence the diamonds,” said Lisbon. “We’ll see. I need to get to the hospital. Rigsby and Van Pelt should have dealt with the others by now.”

Cho nodded. “Okay, I’ll get Romanos processed and released. I’ll join you in a few hours.”

“Good. Jane’s going to need extra protection if this all goes according to plan.” 

***


	7. Lisbon-shaped safety net

****

Jane slept while Lisbon did the required groundwork for his plan, which was not an uncommon occurrence he had to admit. This time it was at Doctor Talavera’s insistence and had been one of her conditions for allowing the slightly unconventional visitor access to his room. She might be prepared to bend some rules to keep her patient happy but she had pointed out that Jane was still seriously ill, and tiring him out wouldn’t be good for his already weakened body. She had explained that his recovery would hopefully be shortened if he rested properly and let his body heal, but equally it would be lengthened if he expended all his energy on talking and planning.

However, Talavera had been surprisingly easy to convince in the end and none of the arsenal of tricks that he’d had up his sleeve had been required. He admitted that he was slightly disappointed about that. It was yet another puzzling fact to add to the mildly engaging diversion that Talavera’s identity was for him. He disliked most doctors for being too cautious where it was not required and too reckless where care would have been more appropriate. Talavera was the opposite. She didn’t seem to care about visiting hours or having a murder suspect in his room, but she monitored his vital signs like a hawk. It would come to him, he was sure. He just needed to give it the right stimulus. In the meantime he had to catch Marcus Addison’s murderer.

When he awoke from the prescribed nap, Lisbon was back at his bedside.

“They’ve all been told,” she said. “It’s just a matter of waiting now. I brought you your book. I found it on the couch back in the bullpen.” She placed the dog-eared copy on his bedside table, but although he appreciated the gesture, reading didn’t really appeal at the moment.

He looked around the room, and tried to persuade his brain to accelerate to full speed. He would need to be sharp for this. He shuffled into the most comfortable position that he could find, whilst still having needles and tubes poking into his body, and took a deep breath.

“Good, then you should get out of here.” Saying just these few words heralded a long, dry, coughing fit, and without even needing to be asked, Lisbon reached for the glass of water on the table beside the bed. She was going to give it to him, but he ended up putting a hand on it while she simply held it to his lips, helping him to drink. Jane was both touched and somewhat freaked out by this small gesture, but he tamped those thoughts down and concentrated on the arrival of his guests. He really didn’t want to confront his own weakness at this moment, or that he had long recovery ahead of him.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea at the moment,” said Lisbon, obviously jumping to the worst conclusion about Jane’s cough.

“It’s going to be fine. If I don’t look like I’m at death’s door then this isn’t going to work. Go on, leave me to it.”

“Jane, you pretty much are at death’s door. You’re still on dialysis and constant monitoring.”

“Details,” replied Jane, flippantly. “Go, you’re scaring off our murderer.”

Lisbon somewhat reluctantly got up from her seat. She came over and checked that Jane had the call button within easy reach. “Okay, you know what to do as soon as anyone turns up. We’ve got a camera and mic wired up in here, but we couldn’t get anything in the corridor so don’t take any chances. We’ll be watching, but because this is a hospital we couldn’t set things up exactly how we wanted to, so we’re on the floor above…”

“Lisbon…” Jane interrupted the CBI agent as she was about to take him through the plan yet again.

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Lisbon headed for the door, she could see that Jane was still tired. She opened the door to the corridor, gave him a quick glance and stepped out of the room.

Jane gave a quick wave to where he knew the camera had been placed. He wondered who was currently keeping watch over him at the moment, he was imagining Cho hunched over the monitor but it could have been any of the other team members. He did a rapid assessment of his body and was somewhat disappointed to discover that he didn’t actually feel much better than he had earlier. He was still weak and his vision was annoyingly blurred. His eyes just didn’t want to focus on anything and squinting didn’t help.

He reached for the book that Lisbon had left him, but immediately realised that he didn’t even have the energy to pick it up, much less read any of it. He was already tired again, so he decided that he would close his eyes for a while. He didn’t even realise that he’d fallen asleep, but apparently he had because he was awakened by the door to his, now dark, room opening. It seemed that he’d been sleeping for a while. Whoever it was didn’t bother to turn on the light, they just came in and closed the door. They waited a few moments, probably giving their eyes time to become accustomed to the dark. Jane felt for the call button that had been on the bed when Lisbon had left, but it didn’t seem to be there now.

The person, a man by the heaviness of the footsteps, was now approaching Jane’s IV stand, and the streetlamp outside the window caught a glint of metal in their hand. Jane was about to speak and reveal that he was actually awake when the door opened a second time. This time a woman had entered, Jane was certain of it.

Jane coughed, his voice sounding horribly weak to his own ears. “Well, now that you’re both here…”

He practically heard the sharp intake of breath that was their surprise at his being conscious. Obviously Van Pelt and Rigsby had spun their story well and everyone concerned believed that Jane was still unconscious, exactly as they had been supposed to.

“…there’s no need to sneak around in the dark. You should put the light on, Lois.”

Lois felt around for the light switch and everyone blinked as they came on. The harsh hospital lighting had a habit of making everyone look pale, Jane concluded, whilst also making the shadows on faces contrast much more darkly. Lois Birchley and Jonathan Barnes looked positively sick at having been found out. However Jonathan was wielding a syringe that was very close to the port of Jane’s IV line and it was clear that his intentions were bad.

Jane realised that Lisbon would need a moment to get to him, from CBI’s listening position on the floor above. He needed to keep them talking and make sure that they got enough evidence to convict. He really hoped that they were paying close attention to the video feed. To make matters worse Lois produced a gun from a pocket and held it in shaking hands towards Jane. He calculated that it was unlikely that she’d use it, because the sound would carry in the hospital, but she was so nervous that it could go off accidentally. The syringe was still his most immediate worry.

“What exactly is in the syringe? Something to wake me up so that I’d be able to tell you where the diamonds are? That probably wouldn’t have been very good for me in my current condition, and it would have been a waste of your time since the police already have the diamonds in their evidence locker.”

Barnes mouth gaped for a moment. “You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said.

“I know exactly what I’ve done. I’ve identified the killers of Marcus Addison. The question is exactly how it happened and how he ended up with the diamonds. I know that they were in the snake, it probably ate a dead mouse which had them stuffed inside, and snakes regurgitate the parts of their meal that they can’t digest. They were perfect for smuggling the diamonds into the country from all those places where diamonds are plentiful but linked to bad men. I should think that snakes are probably plentiful there too. But how did Marcus get the snake?” Jane’s voice was normally commanding in situations like this, but here he had to make do with what he had. It was not up to his usual standards, and getting raspier by the moment.

“The smart thing would be to stop talking,” said Barnes, putting the syringe into the port on Jane’s IV but not depressing the plunger. “I used to work as a veterinarian’s assistant so I know my way around drugs and this stuff is a powerful stimulant. I was going to be careful about how much I used, but if you don’t shut your mouth then I’m going to put it all into you.”

Jane held up his hands as best he could in a gesture of submission. “Sorry, I’ll be quiet.” His brain was racing. This hadn’t been part of the plan.

“Jon, if the police have the stones, then we need to get out of here now. They’ll want their money back,” said Lois. She didn’t specify who “they” might be, but Jane could guess.

“I know,” said Barnes, simply. “But he’s seen us and can testify against us.”

“Did I mention that I might be able to help you?” asked Jane, looking between the two.

“What can you do? You were stupid enough to be bitten by a snake,” said Lois.

Jane fixed Lois with a look that seemed to strip off her clothes and see exactly what was going on underneath.

“I used to be a psychic. Well, of course I wasn’t really psychic, but I can tell you things about yourself that would make you think that I am. For example I know that you and Jonathan here have been seeing each other for about six months. You got into the diamond smuggling business not long after that, when Romanos approached you. He’d found out about the affair and used it to persuade you to help him get the snakes out of the secure port area. The store often imported snakes, so it made sense and he knew that Marcus was too straight laced to do it.”

Lois and Barnes exchanged a look which he knew meant that he was right. Jane noted that no one was threatening to kill him at this point so decided to continue. If they were paying attention to him then they would be more off guard when Lisbon walked through the door.

“Tom Courtney, our Animal Control snake expert, told Agent Van Pelt that there was another snake in Marcus’ collection that was suspicious. The other snake with the dodgy background, that was you too. Obviously I don’t know the exact story, as I said, I’m not actually psychic, but Marcus found you out. He ended up with the illegal snake because something went wrong and it was in your office when he visited you at some point. He recognised it as a species that you shouldn’t have and you couldn’t talk fast enough to make him believe that there was a valid reason why you’d have it. I expect it had already coughed up the diamonds by that point, so you weren’t bothered that Marcus took it. In fact you may even have given it to him with some sob story.” Jane eyed up the woman. “Yes, you actually made a gift of it to him. However he was now suspicious of you, which meant that when Kumiko told him that you’d been to see the snake importer, he started to wonder if something was going on.”

Lois nodded and edged closer to Barnes. “He came to my office just after I’d collected the Long Nosed Viper. We had a huge argument and he took the snake. I knew it was about to cough up the diamonds any day, so Jonathan and I went over to Marcus’s house that night to get it back. Marcus wouldn’t give it to us, he just spouted stuff about animal welfare and said he’d be contacting the authorities about it. He’d keep our names out of it, but Romanos would have to be reported. We couldn’t let him do that. They’d have known who gave the cops the information.”

Barnes also nodded. “Marcus dropped the stupid snake and then we couldn’t find it. At least we knew that he left the pet stores to Lois in his will, so we reckoned that we could siphon enough cash out of the business to make a payment on our debt.” He paused. “We’re dealing with some very bad people here, Mr Jane. Marcus just didn’t understand that it was him or us.”

There was the sound of running footsteps approaching outside the door, and Lisbon and her team burst in. She had her gun in her hands, stretched out in front of her in the usual stance that she employed for situations like this one.

“You’re under arrest, both of you. Jonathan, step away from the IV line and Lois, put the gun down. You don’t want to add a second murder to your list. We could still cut a deal with the DA if you give us enough information to bring down the smugglers and get you both a reduced sentence.”

Barnes still held the syringe, he shook his head. “No, you’re all going to back out of here and down the corridor. Lois, make sure they do it and they get all the way down. If you don’t then I’ll put all of this into Mr Jane’s IV. He won’t last long if I do.”

Jane stiffened. This wasn’t the way that this was supposed to go at all. All that was supposed to happen at this point was that Lisbon, Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt put handcuffs on the suspects. There wasn’t supposed to be any further threatening of his life.

His mouth was good at self-preservation, even if the rest of his body might have trouble occasionally. “Jonathan, where are you planning to go? How are you and Lois even going to get out of the hospital, never mind the state?” asked Jane. “I can’t even stand so I’m not a great hostage. Or are you really planning on becoming a cop killer?” Rhetorical questions were good here, and would hopefully make Barnes think long enough to be distracted and ignore the tell-tale signs of what Cho was planning next.

“Shut up,” was the only reply from the man who currently held Jane’s life in his hand.

“Boss?” asked Cho, and Jane knew that he was asking for permission to take the shot. He was the best marksman on the team and without the addition of a syringe full of stimulant into the equation, it would have been an easy call. Jonathan wasn’t even that far away. Jane was aware of a surreal moment where everyone in the room was hanging on Lisbon’s reply.

Lisbon’s eyes were fixed on Barnes trigger finger. Her expression showed only an unemotional determination to get the job done. The quickest of quick glances at Jane let him know that she hadn’t forgotten him though. With her eyes still on Barnes she spoke. “Do it.”

A shot rang out in the hospital room. It was loud in the enclosed space and the blood that blossomed on Barnes head was too red against the white background of the standard issue hospital tiling. His hand spasmed slightly as he went down and half depressed the plunger of the syringe. Jane immediately realised what had happened.

“Lisbon!” Jane reached for the needle that pierced his arm, the one that the drip line ran into, but he couldn’t make his muscles co-operate.

“Oh no,” said Lisbon, stowing her weapon and rapidly moving to Jane’s side. The heart monitor was beeping insistently. “Call Talavera,” she shouted over her shoulder, shoving Jane’s ineffectual hands out of the way and immediately began to disconnect the IV, pulling at the tape on his arm. With a sharp tug she had the needle out. “Jane?”

Jane was breathing heavily as he looked up at her. He tried to form a sentence that told her how he was feeling, but at this moment he couldn’t manage it. His heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest.

“Jane, I need you to calm down for me. Whatever was in that syringe, it didn’t have time to get through the IV line,” said Lisbon. She looked back at Rigsby, who was busy cuffing Lois. She was apparently too shocked by the death of her partner to remember she had a gun in her hand and had been easily disarmed by the agent. To Jane this was all peripheral to his main task of getting air into his lungs.

Jane was well aware that Lisbon had no real knowledge of how long the drug would have taken to make its way into his arm. She was just saying things to make him feel better, however he did his best to calm his breathing, and was surprised to discover that he could. Perhaps Lisbon had been right about the drug after all.

Talavera came into the room at a full out sprint, but slowed down a little when she saw Jane’s heart rate going down. Jane left Lisbon to explain what had happened whilst he continued his careful breathing and got it more under control. Talavera put on a pair of latex gloves and removed the syringe carefully from where it still hung from the IV stand. She laid it carefully in a kidney dish.

“I expect you’ll want that for evidence,” said the doctor.

“Yes, thank you,” said Lisbon.

“I’ll arrange another room for Mr Jane as well. He can’t stay here, and I’ll order a complete blood panel just to be on the safe side.” Talavera had already picked up his chart and was writing on it. “In fact the sooner we get him moved to somewhere quiet the better.”

Jane finally had had enough breath to speak. He looked up at Lisbon with just a little accusation and a plaintive look in his eyes. “What took you so long?”

Lisbon sighed. “There was a five car pile-up on the interstate. All the injured were brought to this hospital and it’s chaos out there. We couldn’t get through the crush. Birchley and Barnes probably decided that it was a perfect distraction. They were almost right. But you should have pressed the damn call button and you didn’t. It was only when you started talking that we realised that anything was going on at all.”

Jane did his best to shrug. “I couldn’t find it.”

Talavera bent down and picked it up off the floor, curl of dark hair falling across her forehead. “It must have got knocked off the bed while you slept.”

Jane didn’t answer because something in his memory had just clicked. “Vicky Talavera. Your mother was Isabel Hernandez.”

Talavera gave a small nod, looking a little like a deer trapped by a car’s headlights. “I didn’t think you’d remember.”

Lisbon was looking a bit perplexed, as she glanced between the doctor and her patient.

“I’m sorry it took me so long. I think I can probably put it down to all the nice drugs that you’ve been giving me. Normally I don’t forget a face, especially the women that Red John killed, and you look a lot like her.”

“Everyone says so,” said Talavera with a small sad smile.

“I guess that explains why you’ve taken an interest in my care.”

“I’m a doctor, you’d have received the same level of care from me whoever you were, but I’ve read a lot about you Mr Jane and I know that one day you’re going to find the man that murdered my mother.”

“Yes, I am,” said Jane, considerably calmer now than he had been previously. He didn’t really believe that Talavera wasn’t giving him special treatment because he was a fellow survivor of Red John’s terror, but she was probably in denial so he didn’t pursue it further. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.” He found that he really meant it too.

“You don’t need to thank me, I’m doing my job. Besides I don’t get that many really interesting snake bite cases.” Talavera replaced Jane’s chart and went to check the wound where the IV had been removed.

Lisbon had a small smile on her lips and a slight tilt to her head as she watched the exchange. Lois was being ushered out of the room by Rigsby and Van Pelt, and orderlies were now entering to move Jane to a room that wasn’t the scene of a shooting. Cho would be heading back to the office to do the mountains of paperwork that were required after shooting someone in the line of duty. Lisbon would be needed back at the office too after having given the order for Cho to shoot. She had a quick, and quiet, consultation with her agents.

She looked back at Jane. “Grace is going to stay here to keep an eye on your transfer and get a statement. Are you going to be alright without me for a few hours? I’ll be back as soon as I’ve got Lois signed in to custody and started the arrest paperwork.”

Jane nodded, and gave her a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’ll be fine Lisbon. I’m sure Van Pelt is quite capable of keeping an eye on me.”

However he really did appreciate the extra concession of leaving Van Pelt to keep watch. He was still feeling vulnerable and weak, and his inability to even detach a drip line that potentially could have killed him was weighing heavily upon his mind now that the incident was departing into the past. He was totally aware that there was no real reason for Van Pelt to be staying with him, he could just as easily file a witness statement the following day.

He needn’t have worried as the transfer to his new room went seamlessly, without even a bump over a cracked floor tile. By the time a nurse had reattached the traitorous drip line into his arm and all the machines around him had been checked to make sure they were working properly following the change in location, he was sleepy again. He couldn’t ever remember sleeping this much in so little time, but he knew it was a combination of the snake bite antivenin and the other various drugs which were being pumped into him to combat the allergic reaction and pain from his leg. He barely even noticed being hooked up to the dialysis machine again, as he drifted into sleep with Van Pelt sat doing paperwork at his bedside.

***


	8. Of Attics, Tea and Real Estate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. This is the last chapter so I hope you've enjoyed it.

****

Lisbon found herself spending a lot of time at the hospital over the next few days as Jane’s condition slowly improved. She didn’t spend the night again after that first time in the uncomfortable chair. Van Pelt had filled in for her after they’d arrested Lois Birchley and shot Jonathan Barnes, but as Jane’s condition improved he seemed to lose some of the early neediness for her continued presence that he’d displayed at first. 

Talavera was able to stop administering the antivenin on the third day, it having cleared all the remaining snake toxins from his bloodstream. That meant that she was also able to step back on the corticosteroids but Jane was still on a fairly high dosage of pain medication, and it seemed that it was the opioids that were affecting his ability to focus his eyes. They were also most likely responsible for his general sleepiness. And it wasn’t until the end of the first week of Jane’s hospital stay that Talavera thought he might be able to tolerate a change to a different family of painkillers. His leg was healing and the internal damage created by the venom hadn’t worsened.

The change to the new painkillers signalled a return to a much more alert Jane, and a considerably more bored and belligerent patient. However although he was bored and awake more, he was also in more pain and it made him bad tempered, as well as increasingly depressed by his extended hospital stay. The entire team took turns to visit in an effort to keep their consultant from getting too disheartened, and to some extent it worked, although Jane probably would never have admitted it. 

Lisbon brought him books and magazines, Van Pelt lent him her tablet and installed games on it, including a Sudoku program. Jane discovered “Angry Birds” and “Cut the Rope” when Rigsby pointed the games out during a visit, somewhat amazed that he’d never played them before. That kept him occupied for several hours before he got fed up with firing birds at green pigs and feeding monsters candy in increasingly elaborate ways. Cho attempted chess games a couple of time, but found the total mismatch of ability (Jane always won) too much to make it enjoyable for either of them.

Cho walked in to the hospital room with a bag of apples to find Jane staring up at the ceiling with a determined but clearly pained look on his face. He deposited the apples on the table at Jane’s bedside.

“Hey, man. I brought you fruit. What’s up?” asked Cho.

Jane forced a smile, and the very fact that Cho could tell it was forced worried him. Jane was so good at manipulating others that he almost never allowed anyone to see how he really felt, unless of course he wanted them to.

“Your turn for the daily pilgrimage to my bedside, Agent Cho?” said Jane, in a tone somewhere between pleased to see him, and incredibly weary.

Cho ignored the question as the answer was obvious. He asked one of his own instead, with a probably equally obvious answer. “Did they step your pain medication down again?”

“Yeah. The world is feeling very, uh, sharp today,” replied Jane in a tired voice.

“If you’re in pain then you should tell them,” said Cho.

“It’ll pass. I’d rather be off the medication,” said Jane. “Even this new stuff interferes with my head and I’ve had enough of living in a drug induced daze.”

“You’re an idiot,” said Cho tersely and pressed the call button to summon a member of staff. Jane actually failed to notice this, another sign that he just wasn’t right. A nurse appeared a few moments later.

Cho indicated Jane with a gesture. “He’s in pain. Can you give him something to supplement the IV?”

The nurse checked the chart. “I’ll check with the doctor, just a moment and we’ll see what we can do.”

The nurse returned with Dr Talavera. She took one look at Jane and Cho knew that she wasn’t happy to have found out this way that Jane was hurting.

“Patrick, you should have pressed the call button before now if the pain was getting bad,” she admonished. Cho noted the use of the consultant’s first name with interest.

Jane sighed. “Well, now that you’re here…”

Talavera adjusted the IV so that it was giving Jane slightly more pain medication and the tight lines of discomfort on Jane’s face immediately began to soften.

“Snake bite wounds are very painful and you need the right level of medication so that you can rest and heal,” said Talavera.

“What I need is to get out of this sterile, insipidly dull room,” replied Jane.

“You can’t rush things. Your body will take its own time to get better and trying to force it into things that it isn’t ready for won’t help you get out of here any faster,” replied Talavera.

Lisbon chose that moment to also arrive to visit Jane, and caught the end of the conversation. “What’s he done now?”

“He didn’t tell them that the decreased pain medication wasn’t working,” said Cho.

Lisbon scowled. “I didn’t take you for a masochist. Listen to the nice doctor, she knows what she’s talking about.”

“I’ve had enough of this place,” said Jane, an unattractive whine in his voice. “And staring at the same walls day and night for the last week and half with nothing to do but read books and play puzzle games. I’ve catapulted so many small red birds at architecturally dubious structures that I’m seeing them in my sleep, and honestly I can’t actually even remember what the birds are angry about anymore.”

“Well at least we know he’s getting better,” said Lisbon to Cho with more than a little resignation. Cho was unimpressed by Jane’s complaints.

“You’re still on dialysis,” pointed out Cho. “You can’t leave until you can be unhooked from all the machines that are keeping you alive.”

Talavera nodded. “It should only be another couple of days on the dialysis and then we can re-evaluate the leg wound and other damage from the snake venom. Hopefully we can get you home next week, although you’ll probably need someone to help you out in the house.”

Jane’s face fell even further if that was possible. “I don’t really have a house at the moment. Well, I do but it’s in Malibu and there isn’t any furniture in it. I stay at a motel most of the time.”

Cho was actually momentarily shocked by Jane giving this information away so easily to the Doctor, but then Talavera seemed to have some sort of strange bond with Jane. Both of them were relatives of Red John’s victims, and it seemed to mean that Jane was actually willing to be slightly more open with her once in a while.

Talavera frowned. “I’m not sure that I’d want to discharge you to a motel at that point, especially on your own. We might be better off keeping you here for another week.”

Jane looked utterly defeated by this statement.

“Hey, man, don’t worry. We’ll work something out,” said Cho, already thinking.

Lisbon nodded. “Yeah, you can always stay with me.”

Jane shook his head. “Lisbon, as charming as your offer is, you have a one bedroom apartment. I refuse to throw you out of your own bed and I doubt sleeping on your rather uncomfortable couch is going to help my condition at the moment. You’re also out during the day solving crimes.”

Cho wasn’t entirely surprised by the answer, or by Lisbon’s rapid assertion that she’d be happy on the uncomfortable couch. Jane refused to budge on the proposition though, both too proud and too private to accept such close proximity living.

“I’ll just have to man up and stay here for the extra week,” he added.

Talavera looked a little perplexed at this, but before she could probe further into what was preventing Jane from taking up Lisbon’s offer, Cho spoke. “You can stay upstairs at CBI. It’s practically where you live anyway.”

Lisbon’s eyes widened and her mouth opened just a little in surprise. Cho could tell that she was considering objecting, but her expression changed and mutated into one of agreement. There was a slow nod to her head, as she looked between Jane and Cho.

“You know that actually might just work, if we can keep it in the team. We can take shifts to make sure there’s always someone to keep an eye on you and bring you food. We’ll need to get you a proper bed, rather than that door on trestles you’ve been sleeping on, but I think we can swing that,” said Lisbon.

A broad smile spread across Jane’s face. “I like it. I can be free of this place, but you still get to feel like you’re looking after me, thus fulfilling your need to believe that you’re keeping me safe.”

“Jane,” said Lisbon, in a tone of warning. “I can just as easily leave you in Dr Talavera’s care for the next two weeks.”

Talavera actually smirked as she watched this exchange, and Cho realised that she was beginning to get a feel for how the team dynamic operated.

“Patrick’s recovery will definitely be helped by not being in a hospital,” said Talavera, the smirk fading somewhat. “Although I hope that there’s a bathroom on the same floor, getting around is going to be difficult until your leg heals properly. You’ll need to be resting and not working as well.”

Lisbon nodded. “Yeah, it should be fine. There are bathrooms on all the floors at CBI, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t get involved in any cases too soon.”

Cho also nodded, backing up Lisbon’s statement. “We’ll keep an eye on him.”

Jane gave a roll of his eyes. “I won’t be needing the babysitting service, I’m quite capable of knowing my own limits.”

Cho just raised his eyebrows. “You tried to catch two murderers in the room down the hall from this one. Your condition was still listed as “serious” on your chart. I don’t think you even have a passing acquaintance with your limits.”

Lisbon laughed, but stopped when Jane glared at her. “He’s right. So we’ll be keeping an eye on you until you’re back to full health. It’s part of the deal Jane, so you’re not getting out of here unless you agree to play ball.”

Jane sighed with exaggeration. “Very well, but I want it noted that my plan worked. I didn’t try to catch two murderers, I succeeded.”

“Yes, but you nearly died in the process, so I’m not sure that you want to be reminding everyone just how close we came to attending your funeral instead of installing you in the attic,” said Lisbon, in an even tone. She wasn’t chastising Jane, she was just reminding him to be more careful in the future.

“I know,” said Jane, and his tone was so flat and unlike him that neither CBI agent had the heart to take the conversation any further.

They changed the subject and chatted about office gossip, which Jane always pretended not to be interested in, but in reality loved. Talavera eventually left to make her rounds, and it was the end of visiting time before anyone realised it.

***

Jane’s mood and patience improved considerably once he was given a date for leaving the hospital, and somewhere to go. However, on the day of his final discharge he was climbing the walls waiting for Lisbon to arrive and take him back to CBI. Lisbon had checked to make sure all was well that morning and he was expecting her at lunch time. He couldn’t help but watch the seconds tick by until he could finally get out of this white walled prison for sick people – which he certainly no longer numbered himself amongst.

The appointed moment came and went. Lisbon was late. He sat on his bed, dressed in the suit that Lisbon had left him the previous day, looking like his date had stood him up. He received a text message on his phone a few minutes later from her. They had caught a murder case and therefore she’d had to go and examine the body and the site where it was found. She would get to him as soon as she could, but it might be a few hours.

Jane sighed. He texted back “understood”, just the one word, because he didn’t know what else to say. He did understand and work had to come first, but the disappointment was ridiculously crushing. He had been looking forwards to leaving and even a short delay was too much at this moment. He realised that this was an overreaction, but the weakness in his body was leading him to experience some very strange emotional twists at the moment. Although perhaps it was the drugs that Talavera still had him taking.

He regarded the crutches that sat at his bedside. He’d tried them out over the previous few days with varying degrees of success. Could he even use them well enough that he could make a break for it? He didn’t know, but he was certainly going to try. He gently levered himself off the bed, using it to support himself enough that he could grab the crutches and get them positioned. He stood and wobbled for a few moments, getting used to standing with the crutches with the bed within reach in case he fell. He tried a couple of steps, tentative and slow, but he seemed stable enough. He allowed himself a smile for this small triumph.

He grabbed the bag that Lisbon had dropped off, which now contained the few personal items he’d arrived at the hospital with and a small pharmacy of drugs. Holding it made using the crutches difficult but if he left it behind then he’d be in trouble with both Lisbon and Talavera, something that he just couldn’t face at the moment. It was bad enough that he was still sleeping a lot more than he would consider normal, and feeling weak from just walking the few steps that he had. His leg was now aching fiercely from the movement too.

He hobbled and shuffled out of his room and towards the front desk. He made a little bit of small talk with the nurses, left a note for Talavera, who was currently off shift, and asked one of the nurses to call him a cab. He took a seat in the waiting area, glad for the excuse to sit down again, and after few minutes the cab arrived.

He almost fell asleep in the cab on the way back to CBI, but the cabbie was kind enough to awaken him with the demand for the fare. He searched around in his belongings for his wallet only to realise that there wasn’t enough cash in it to pay the fare. He sighed and went to borrow the required amount from the security guard on the gate, with a promise that Lisbon would reimburse him. He was racking up the black marks with her today and he hadn’t even entered the building yet.

He successfully negotiated the exit from the cab with the crutches, and made it up the steps into the building. He nodded at a few people who said “hi” as he moved towards the elevator, but he mainly ignored people. He was mostly focussed on getting to the bull pen before his leg gave out somewhere public, which was becoming more likely with every agonising step. He hadn’t ever walked this far on his crutches and he hadn’t realised that it would take so much out of him.

He made it into the relative safety of the empty elevator where he allowed himself to lean against the wall and hit the button with the end of a crutch. The walls were cool against his sweaty forehead and he pretended that he didn’t feel like crap, even though he did. The doors opened and quickly pulled himself into an upright position again. He steeled himself for more people to acknowledge his presence and the possibility that at least one of the team was still in the bull pen. He rounded the corner and almost ran into Rigsby, reading a file as he walked. That actually turned out to be just as well since he lost his balance and his bad leg was now so sore that it wouldn’t take his weight even for a minute.

Rigsby’s exasperated grunt of “Jane!” was both one of surprise at seeing him and exertion from stopping him from falling to the ground.

“What are you doing here?” asked Rigsby, crossly, as he helped Jane to the couch.

“This is where I’m supposed to be,” replied Jane, breathing heavily.

“Not on your own. You were supposed to wait for Lisbon to come and pick you up,” said Rigsby as he deposited Jane on the couch. “We don’t have time to get you settled in right now, we’re chasing a killer.”

“I’ll be fine here. I just need a glass of water to take my pain pills, and I’ll be fine,” repeated Jane, using his most pathetic tone, as he shrugged out of his jacket and gently stretched his legs out on the brown leather couch.

Rigsby sighed, putting the file down on the table and went to get the glass of water. By the time he came back Jane was already half asleep, but he had the pill bottle out and Rigsby shook out the required pills onto his hand. Jane downed them on autopilot with a mouthful of water, only because he knew he’d be woken by the pain if he didn’t take them. As he happily drifted into proper sleep on his favourite couch, he heard Rigsby flipping open his phone and calling Lisbon, but didn’t stay conscious long enough to hear what was said. He was certainly too far gone to notice Rigsby shaking out the blanket and throwing it over him.

***

Lisbon had not been pleased when Rigsby had called her to inform her that their consultant had decided to make his own way home from the hospital. This sort of exertion was exactly the kind of thing that he was supposed to be avoiding, and he wasn’t even meant to be using the crutches yet, let alone hobbling home on them. When she arrived back in the office to find that she owed cab fare to the security guard on the gate, she was ready to kill Jane. 

That was right up until she saw him sleeping on his sofa with a blanket draped over him. He actually looked happy for the first time in weeks and was sleeping, which he needed to do to heal, so she just couldn’t maintain her anger. Some things just went against the laws of physics. Instead she organised her team and set them their tasks just as she would do for any murder investigation. Even having Jane asleep on the couch felt like being back to normal. Of course normally she’d be shouting at him to help out, but right now she’d prefer him to be lazy and take the time he needed to recover.

It was several hours before she saw any kind of movement from the couch at the end of the bull pen, save the gentle rise and fall of Jane’s chest. She had set herself up at what was supposed to be Jane’s desk, but he never actually used, so that she could keep an eye on him. To be honest the entire team had an eye on their sleeping consultant, and the other on what they were actually supposed to be doing. They were at the point of the case where research was needed, so they could all afford some time in the office at the moment.

Jane stirred in his sleep, but took his time coming to. Lisbon could tell by the way that he moved that his leg was aching again, but he wasn’t due more pain medication for a little while yet. It was something that she’d picked up during his two week stay in the hospital. Talavera had warned them that over exertion would lead to pain while his muscles healed, especially in the area of the bite where the muscles had been damaged most badly. He was due to start physio in the next few days so he could get back on his feet without the crutches, but Jane only had himself to blame for the discomfort he was now in.

Lisbon twisted in her seat so that she was facing Jane as he opened his eyes. He smiled as he saw her.

“Lisbon,” he paused a moment, clearly taking in where he was, and slower than normal at covering it up. Once he’d worked out that it was back in the bull pen he relaxed just a little.

“Hey there,” she said and just gave him a look which let him know that he was in trouble. “What are you doing on my couch? I was expecting to pick you up from the hospital. You couldn’t wait a few hours?”

“Clearly I couldn’t,” replied Jane. “Staying a moment longer in that miserable place was simply not an option that I was willing to consider. Hospitals are for sick people and obviously I’m not sick, so I was not going to wait for you to finish whatever it was that you were doing.”

“I was investigating a murder. You know, that thing we do in this office,” replied Lisbon.

Jane waved a hand at Lisbon. “I’m sure the body would have waited for you.” He began to push himself up into a sitting position and then started to reach for his crutches.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I need to go to the little boys’ room, Lisbon. Are you going to be like this until my leg has healed? Because I don’t really want to have to report to you every time I feel the need to use the bathroom,” said Jane.

Lisbon rolled her eyes. “You don’t need my permission to pee, Jane. I’m just worried because Talavera told you to stay off your leg, and so far you’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring all her instructions. I bet you didn’t even take all your pills before you crashed.”

“I was tired,” said Jane, a little defensively.

“Rigs, give him a hand to the bathroom. I’ll get his medication sorted out and then we’ll get him upstairs and into bed,” said Lisbon, reaching for Jane’s bag.

Jane managed to make it into a sitting position on his own, failing to hide the odd grimace from moving his leg. “I’d rather stay here for a while if it’s all the same to you.”

Lisbon looked up from her sorting of the pill bottles, and caught the look in his eye. It was definitely asking her to give in this one time. She sighed. “Okay, you can stay down here a bit longer, but you’re not spending the night on your beloved couch. No trying to get up and get tea either, for now we’ll bring you whatever you need.”

Rigsby got himself positioned so that he could help Jane to stand on his good leg and then after getting him steady he helped position the crutches. He hovered beside him.

Jane grinned at being upright again. “Personal servants, I like that idea.”

“Don’t get too used to it,” said Rigsby.

“But one of us will be staying the night in the building, every night, until you’re more mobile,” Lisbon pointed out.

“Well the illusion of independence was nice while it lasted,” said Jane, as Rigsby continued to hover around him as he lolloped towards the toilets.

By the time Jane returned, Lisbon had his medication laid out in order and had shaken out the required pills onto the lid of one of the larger bottles. She handed Jane a glass of water and deposited the pills in his palm once he was sat on the couch again.

“This is truly touching, but I don’t need your mother hen routine, or for you to sort out my medication for me. Vicky wrote everything down for me and took me through all the pills and their potential side effects twice,” said Jane. “I also have an excellent memory, which it seems you’ve forgotten.”

“Then start proving that you’re actually capable of taking care of yourself, otherwise I’ll get Cho to bring Talavera down here and you can explain to her why you’re being an idiot in person,” said Lisbon, brusquely.

“If it will make you feel better, I promise to try to be more careful with my leg,” replied Jane, his demeanour softening slightly. Perhaps he had worked out that Lisbon was deadly serious about looking after him. She was determined that he was going to have a smooth recovery.

Lisbon nodded. “Okay. I’ll remind you of that when you inevitably want to do something stupid.”

Jane threw the handful of pills into his mouth all at once and then drank half the glass of water to wash them down.

“Are you hungry?” Lisbon asked.

Jane gave a shrug, but then nodded. “I could eat. And if you could rustle me up a cup of tea that would be good. Just don’t let Rigsby make it.”

“Hey!” said Rigsby indignantly, as he returned to his desk. “I did exactly what you said.”

“I’ll make the tea,” said Lisbon to forestall an argument. “Van Pelt can you organise some food?”

“Sure boss,” replied the young agent, already reaching for the take out menus.

Lisbon wandered out of the bull pen to the kitchen, listening to the sounds of Patrick Jane interacting teasingly with the rest of the team as they decided what to eat. Things weren’t quite back to normal but they were certainly getting there. Although she was just beginning to get some idea of what having a recovering Jane around the place was going to be like. She wouldn’t change things for the world at the moment though.

***

Nothing where Jane was concerned was ever easy. He complained a lot about what he considered to be fussing and everyone else just considered to be common sense when dealing with someone of limited mobility. 

Jane’s attic room had been set up with a proper bed for, admittedly it wasn’t a particularly deluxe bed, just a basic metal frame, but it would do for now. A mattress had also been added on the floor for whoever was on the overnight shift. The idea was that someone would sleep in the same room as Jane, so that they were on hand if required. Jane had initially protested at this, but had been unanimously overruled by his team. No one wanted Jane to take a fall and be stuck on a cold floor all night.

Lisbon took the overnight shift on the first day after he came “home” from the hospital. Jane woke her twice during the night, once because he wanted to go to the bathroom and a second time because he was having a nightmare. Lisbon gently roused him from the nightmare, not bothering to ask what it was about. He seemed to be somewhere else and she didn’t think he actually recognised her. They settled back into sleep until the morning. She wasn’t even sure that Jane had really woken at all and when she questioned him in the light of the morning sun, he didn’t actually remember it.

Subsequent nights brought reports of similar incidents from the other team members. Cho had a particularly bad night a couple of days later, with three nightmares waking them both and Jane being confused and scared by one particularly bad one. Cho seemed to have done the right things and calmed Jane down, but the last of the three took over an hour for Jane to come back from. Both of them looked worn the next morning and Jane spent almost the entire day asleep on the couch, leaving the bull pen unusually quiet.

The following night Lisbon decided to broach the subject with him, since it was her turn again. She waited until she’d got him into bed and then sat on her own mattress and began questioning.

“How long have you had nightmares like this for?”

“Nightmares?” asked Jane, innocently.

“Yes, nightmares, Jane. Everyone has told me that you’ve had them these last few days, so there’s not point trying to bluff it out with me. Is this something which is always this bad or has the snake bite made it worse?”

Jane was clearly not meeting her eyes on purpose. “I’ve had them ever since…” he waved a hand and knew what he hadn’t said. Ever since Red John murdered his wife and child. “Sometimes they’re worse than others. Before my hospital stay they hadn’t made much of an appearance for a while, just the odd night here and there. In hospital, it was every night, sometimes more than once. You were there for some of it…”

Lisbon nodded. “Don’t you think you should see someone about it? It can’t be much fun, and then you’re sleep deprived the next day.”

“Usually there’s a trigger, and as I said it hasn’t been this bad for some time. Talking about it would probably make it worse not better and sleeping pills can’t be used long term without unacceptable side effects.” He finally turned a little to look at Lisbon. “It’ll improve, just like it did before. Until then, I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep.”

“You don’t need to be sorry. Maybe next time you fall asleep on the couch during the day I’ll be more inclined not to wake you.”

Jane smiled. “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

“Do you know what set you off this time?” she asked, gently.

Jane shrugged. “It could have been the hospital itself, or watching my blood in tubes during dialysis. Sometimes a lot of blood at a crime scene triggers a flashback, at least it used to. It may just be that some of the medication that I’m taking is messing with my REM sleep. I don’t know. Like I said, it got better before, so I have every reason to believe that it will this time.”

Jane wouldn’t say much more on the subject, so she gave up. Everyone just did their best to deal with Jane’s nightmares as quickly and sensitively as possible when they were on shift.

Jane spent two more weeks recovering, either on the couch in the bull pen or in his attic room. Finally he began to sleep better when Talavera stopped his pain medication (apparently it had mostly been the pills interfering with his sleep) and his nightly watchman service was no longer necessary from a mobility point of view. 

He wanted to get back to work far earlier that Lisbon felt happy with agreeing to, which surprised her a little, but of course eventually she had to give in. Once Jane was using a walking stick rather than the crutches, she let him loose on crime scenes again. This led to a memorable incident where Jane used his walking stick to trip up an escaping suspect. She’d actually been pleasantly surprised by his input in the case that day, and Rigsby had thanked him with an extra slice of case-closed-pizza for meaning that he didn’t have to run after another suspect. 

Lisbon hadn’t been entirely certain that he was ready for such exertions, but this seemed to prove that he was, at least in spirit if not in body. He still slept more than was normal for him, but even that improved as the days passed. Talavera had been making regular trips to the office, but they were now few and far between. She almost missed the dark haired doctor, who seemed to be the only medical professional whose opinion Jane took seriously.

Lisbon walked into the office one morning to find Jane making tea in the break room without even his walking stick at his side. He’d been doing his best to leave it behind at crime scenes and suspects’ houses for days. It was early, in fact far too early for Jane to normally have made it in from the motel that he’d been staying at recently. She’d bet money that he’d slept on his sofa or in the attic, amongst his Red John photos and cuttings, last night. The rest of the team hadn’t got in yet, in fact very few people were even in the building at this time of the morning.

“Hey, no walking stick,” she said, as he dunked his tea bag in his favourite blue cup.

“No, I haven’t really needed it for a while now, but it was a useful prop for the Jones case,” he said. He’d made out that he was shot in the line of duty so that their suspect, an ex-police man, identified with his story. It had worked and he’d got a confession out of him easily.

“Are you sure? Talavera was pretty clear that you were to use it until the weakness was gone completely,” said Lisbon.

“It’s fine, Teresa,” said Jane, throwing the tea bag in the trash. “My leg is fine and I’m fine.”

She watched his gait carefully, and she had to admit that he showed no signs of the limp that he’d initially displayed. Then she realised that he’d called her Teresa, and she knew he only kept that for the moments when he was serious.

She turned back to her own coffee creation. “You do seem better. At least your leg is anyway. The rest of you? I’ve never really known.”

“I think you have, otherwise I’d never have got this far,” replied Jane, slightly cryptically. “But this is all rather serious for this time of the morning. I was rather hoping that you could help me out with something.”

Lisbon frowned. Where Jane was concerned, helping him usually led to trouble.

Jane obviously saw her expression because he continued. “Don’t worry, this is a personal request rather than a work related one. I’ve decided that I need to buy an apartment in Sacramento. All this hiding out in attics has been fun, but clearly it has ramifications that I hadn’t really considered. It would be cheaper than all these motels and more convenient as well.”

Lisbon knew that there were several reasons why it had taken Jane five years to consider buying an apartment in Sacramento and none of them had anything to do with money or convenience. As far as she’d been able to ascertain it was a combination of not wanting to let go of the life that he’d had, self-flagellation with the reminder of what Red John had done because of him, and perhaps some strange idea that he was forgetting his wife and child if he actually began to move on with his life.

“That sounds like a good idea,” she said, not wanting to seem overenthusiastic and perhaps destroy this fragile progress that he was making by giving him a reason to go back on the suggestion. “How can I help?”

“I need a second opinion,” he said. “I’ve got some viewings lined up, but it’s been a while since I was in the market for property. I can go alone but it would really help…”

Lisbon was already nodding. “Not a problem, just tell me when and where.”

Jane sipped his tea. “Of course. I have the details on my desk, I’ll text you.”

They stood, making and drinking their respective hot drinks in companionable silence for a few moments. Lisbon never would have guessed that getting bitten by a snake might actually have a good outcome for Jane and she wondered why he’d really decided to look for an apartment now. That question was answered almost immediately when they returned to the bull pen and found Rigsby depositing a stack of real estate details on Jane’s desk.

“Hey there, man,” said Rigsby. “I talked to my cousin and he thinks now is a really good time to buy.”

Cho entered a few minutes later and also joined in the conversation with his own recommendations about apartments. Van Pelt added her opinions when she showed up and Lisbon realised that five years ago, when a haunted, fragile looking Patrick Jane had refused to leave until he could see the Red John files, this wouldn’t have been possible. No one had been around then to wake him from nightmares or stop him from falling.

He had something now that he’d lost on the day Red John struck. He had a reason to stay in one place and call it home. He had a family again. Perhaps it had taken a snake bite for them all to realise it. 

Lisbon just smiled to herself as she watched her dysfunctional family discuss real estate options for Jane. It was all so pleasingly mundane and normal. It was also rare that she started her day feeling this good about something that Jane had done, so she savoured it before getting back to work. They still had killers to catch after all.


End file.
